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MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE
DUCKLING UGLY

By Darlene Roy

 
Future banana skirt coquett’ with a hundred
faces, rolled saucer eyes, flapped slender arms
and thighs to lure globe-round ticket
holders. Baker’s belly laughs spilled in waves,
during zany, slap stick antics. Masking a
future siren, she just "Shuffled Along" from
tank town stops to La Revue Nègre.

​
​
For St. Louis, Missouri born Freda Josephine McDonald (1906-1975), who became Josephine Baker, a renowned singer, dancer and expatriate to France.


BEHIND THE VENEER
 
Awful and awe-some phrases deftly decode
our lives’ links or limits through the
cryptic pen of this noted time shifter,
spirits diviner and memory bender. When the
once dead thrives, as a specter or
name -- and magic veils reality, then pushes
us beyond belief – we enter Toni’s tome.


​
 For Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison,  who transitioned on April 5, 2019.




  • HOME ISSUE #3
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY AND PROSE
  • BLACK MUSIC PHOTO ESSAY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • VISUAL ART GALLERY
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • Support Merge Literary Magazine
  • ISSUE #2 CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
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  • MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • Multimedia Art Review
  • PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
  • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • ISSUE #1 POLITICAL AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
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    • About US
    • POETRY
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    • ART ILLUSTRATION
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    • MULTI-MEDIA QUILT REVIEW
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    • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • Support Merge Literary Magazine