i.
all my life they’ve been near me
these men/
some for a while like the
friend of my father’s who drove
each summer from denver to
st. louis/ with some different
white woman/ i remember one seemed
to like me/ she had rose blond hair
i wondered/ why do you like me
you’re with him & he’s mine
he’s colored/ he’ll always be
like that/ like me/ i think
he knew my eight-year-old
precocious soul was hankering
for days to come with one/
one of them colored fellas
who’d be mine/ on purpose/ not
just cause of some pigmentation
problem/ or a grandfather clause
in mississpippi/ i lived there near
the water/ the river/ the silt
caking my calves/ me laughin with
the younguns/ the boys who’d be
black men one day
if they lived so long
he brought me rocks/ each sojourn
quartz marble granite & sandstone
onyx ovals i could hold onto when
he drove off with the white woman
i never felt sad/ i didn’t know i might
be experiencing rejection/ a little
colored girl with an ebony stone
in the palm of her hand
i knew that was his heart
where could a man go without his heart
a child by the mississippi grasping
dreams/ yet to grab holto a man
but nighttime & motown asked me to dance
sang sweet streams of sweat
moist kisses/ those arrogant torsos
daring crackers or a fool to
look the wrong way/ no just look
a funny way & it’d be over
or just begun
look at me pretty niggah
bring it over here/ i’m grown
now & the stones don’t sit
static in my hand/ you know
how it is black volcanoes erupt
they say when miles davis manages
to whisper/ they erupt they say
when the blackstone rangers take
a stroll/ black volcanoes seep
lava anywhere there’s true love
now i’m not talkin about
a hoot and holler or a dance on a dime
but whenever there’s true
love/ black volcanoes seep lava
& it’s always been mine
always my dear like the Bible
says an eye for an eye/ there’s
a me for a you
i’ve been holding your heart in
my hand since i was a child
i’ve been preoccupied on occasion
but i had to grow some too
cause i wanted what all you were
what all you are/ now you’re a man
you’ve got the world watchin your
every move/ i’ve got your heart
& by the mississippi/ when i was a
child/ we callt that a groove
sweet black-eyed pea
honey-dripped husk
bring it on/ i’m not afraid
i’ve known you all my life
& this my dear is just the
beginning
the first inkling of what they’re gonna
hear
it ain’t no lie that we could sing
don’t be embarassed/ just appear
right there
the way i have you/ those
times you’re brown & wet/ those
times your strength can’t be met
just be
&
remember me/ oh back then
when you rode off & left
your heart in the palm
of my child hand
among palms whistling lizards
nestle by roots freshly humid
roots by palm fronds the sun
tickles lovers inviting them to
make quickly some love in
moist sands seeping through toes
pull down the bosom the legs
wiry & thick haired pull down
the petticoats/ lace panties
perfumed lips skipping over
shoulders muscles making music
where before only acacias & macaws
dared solo/ many duets
have been abandoned by the trunks
of palms searching for
moonlight/ rushing toward the sky
as tongues would wrap round
each other/ dew like honey
slipping from their lips
whole skies fallen by
their feet/
jaguars prowl when their
eyes meet.
From the love space demands