the white boys do?" I lowered my jaw and scratched my head And said (innocently, I think), "Well, suh, I ain't for sure, but I reckon it's cause We ain't got no wheres to run to." Written in a vernacular style reminiscent of a tale by Uncle Remus, Knight expresses the doubtfulness of black autonomy and white motives, for "Knight[sees] American as a prison where, no matter how benevolent a warden wishes to be, his gestures remain part of what locks his charges in." Knight's true prison, then, is the ways in which the Law, controlled by white America, imprisons black bodies and black voices, regardless of their presumed physical freedom. Knight's poem, ″A WASP Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison″ shows how humans must only find a common interest to make a connection, in this case, both the black man and white woman have children. According to Premo, the "encounter leaves the man touched and softened by the woman, as are many of Knight's male speakers. In ″Belly Song,″ the speaker "sings of love: all the emotion, pain, memory, and passion of living.″ In ″The Stretching of the Belly," Knight contrasts the stretchmarks of his third wife, Charlene Blackburn with his own scars. His wife's representing ″growth and life″ while his are from ″war, violence, and slavery.″ Works Poems from Prison. Detroit: Broadside Press, 1968. 2 Poems for Black Relocation Centers, 1968. The Idea of Ancestry, 1968. Black Voices from Prison (with others). New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970. A Poem for Brother Man, 1972. For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide, 1972. Belly Song and Other Poems. Detroit: Broadside Press, 1973. Born of a Woman: New and Selected Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. The Essential Etheridge Knight. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986. The Lost Etheridge. Athens: Kinchafoonee Creek Press, 2022. References External links Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge: Etheridge Knight. Small collection of poems. Guide to the Etheridge Knight Collection, Butler University Modern American Poetry: Etheridge Knight (1931–1991) Etheridge Knight Biography. Biography and Interview at the Worcester Writers' Project Online collection of 14 poems by Etheridge Knight complete with biographical information* 1931 births 1991 deaths 20th-century American poets African-American poets Deaths from lung cancer Deaths from cancer in Indiana University of Hartford faculty People from Corinth, Mississippi Writers from Indianapolis Poets from Mississippi Poets from Indiana United States Army personnel of the Korean War American people convicted of