Wanda Coleman

Born on November 13, 1946, Wanda Coleman grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. During her lifetime she worked as a medical secretary, magazine editor, journalist, and Emmy Award-winning scriptwriter before turning to poetry. Her poetry collections include Mercurochrome: New Poems (2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry; Bathwater Wine (Black Sparrow Press, 1998), which received the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Native in a Strange Land: Trials & Tremors (1996); Hand Dance (1993); African Sleeping Sickness (1990); Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems & Stories 1968-1986 (1988); and Imagoes (1983). She also wrote the books Jazz and Twelve O'Clock Tales: New Stories (2008), Mambo Hips & Make Believe: A Novel (Black Sparrow Press, 1999), and A War of Eyes and Other Stories (1988). A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, Coleman was regarded as a central figure in Los Angeles literary life. Source

Bedtime Story

bed calls. i sit in the dark in the living room

trying to ignore them

in the morning, especially Sunday mornings

it will not let me up. you must sleep

longer, it says

facing south

the bed makes me lay heavenward on my back

while i prefer a westerly fetal position

facing the wall

the bed sucks me sideways into it when i

sit down on it to put on my shoes. this

persistence on its part forces me to dress in

the bathroom where things are less subversive

the bed lumps up in anger springs popping out to

scratch my dusky thighs

my little office sits in the alcove adjacent to

the bed. it makes strange little sighs

which distract me from my work

sadistically i pull back the covers

put my typewriter on the sheet and turn it on

the bed complains that i'm difficult duty

its slats are collapsing. it bitches when i

blanket it with books and papers. it tells me

it's made for blood and bone

lately spiders ants and roaches

have invaded it searching for food

Published:

1993

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Postmodernism

Anthology Years:

2021

Themes:

Poems of the Everyday