The Ten Commandments

Jericho Brown

But I could be covetous. I could be a thief.

Could want and work for. Could wire and

Deceive. I thought to fool the moon into

A doubt. I did some doubting. Lord,

Forgive me. In New Orleans that winter,

I waited for a woman to find me shirtless

On her back porch. Why? She meant it

Rhetorically and hit me with open hands.

How many times can a woman say why

With her hands in the moonlight? I counted

Ten like light breaking hard on my head,

Ten rhetorical whys and half a moon. Half-

Nude, I let her light into me. I could be last

On a list of lovers Joe Adams would see,

And first to find his wife slapping the spit

Out of me. I could be sick and sullen. I could

Sulk and sigh. I could be a novel character

By E. Lynn Harris, but even he'd allow me

Some dignity. He loved black people too

Much to write about a wife whipping her rival

On a night people in Louisiana call cold.

He'd have Joe Adams run out back and pull

Her off of me. He wouldn't think I deserved it.