We was talking about a tree, sethe
After i left you, those boys came in there and took my milk...held me down and took it. i told mrs garner on em...them boys found out I told on em. School teacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. it still grows there still"
They used a cowhide on you
and they took my milk
they beat you and you was pregant
And they took my milk

(beloved 16-17)

see also beloved 50-51 (im not transcribing two pages)

and this note:
"obviously, the tree as the sign of sacrifice--of ones beloved, in paticular--has its precedents, to put it lightly. Christianity founds itself upon t he tree as the site (and later sign) of a loss that is also a compensation. More ominously, the tree on SEthes back inscurves the site of lynching on her body..."

thats the interesting thing--from kathryn stocktons essay on it... its itneresting, because there is nothing redemptive, nothing holy about jesus talk--and because i think she thinks that in america, the whole body of christ is blacks--scapegoating as topography.

also connect to the pouring of fluids, the emptying of fluids, and the transgendered oppurtunity of the wounds of christ.