Living Shadows: On Asma Naeem’s ‘Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now’
“Southern gentle lady, / Do not swoon. / They’ve just hung a black man / In the dark of the moon.” “Silhouette” by Langston Hughes rests on one of the middle pages of Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Nowby , the poem’s white lines centered against black background. “They’ve hung a black man / To a roadside tree / In the dark of the moon / For the world to see.” The word appears only in the title, not the actual text of the poem. Its presence comes from its absence.
