COPYRIGHT © 2012 by Patricia Smith

COVER AND BOOK DESIGN by Linda Koutsky

COVER PHOTOGRAPH © RIA Novosti

AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © Rachel Eliza Griffiths

COFFEE HOUSE PRESS books are available to the trade through our primary distributor, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, www.cbsd.com. For personal orders, catalogs, or other information, write to: Coffee House Press, 79 Thirteenth Avenue NE, Suite 110, Minneapolis, MN 55413.

Coffee House Press is a nonprofit literary publishing house. Support from private foundations, corporate giving programs, government programs, and generous individuals helps make the publication of our books possible. We gratefully acknowledge their support in detail in the back of this book. To you and our many readers around the world, we send our thanks for your continuing support.

Good books are brewing at coffeehousepress.org

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CIP INFORMATION

Smith, Patricia, 1955–

Shoulda been Jimi Savannah / Patricia Smith.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-56689-367-1

1. Title.

PS3569.M537839S56 2012

811'.54—DC22

2011029282

1  3  5  7  9  8  6  4  2

FIRST EDITION | FIRST PRINTING

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank the editors of the following publications where these works first appeared: Asheville Poetry Review: “Still Life with Toothpick,” “Before Orphan Unearthed the Mirror”; Best American Essays 2011: “Pearl, Upward,” (comprised of the poems “How a Mama Begins Sometimes,” “Annie Pearl, Upward” and “June 25, 1955”) Best American Poetry 2011: “Motown Crown”; Bop, Strut, and Dance: A Post-Blues Form for New Generations: “Annie Pearl’s ArethaBops”; Chautauqua Literary Journal: “Thief of Tongues”; City of Big Shoulders—An Anthology of Chicago Poetry: “Chicago”; Crab Orchard Review: “Pearl, Upward”; Cutthroat: “Carnie,” “Next. Next.” “Shedding”; Gargoyle: “Because,” “Dear Jimmy Connoll”; Granta: “A Colored Girl Will Slice You If You Talk Wrong about Motown”; Killer Verse—Poems of Mayhem and Murder: “Speculation”; PMS—Poem/Memoir/Story: “An All-Purpose Product”; Poetry: “Hip-Hop Ghazal”; Rattle: “Tavern. Tavern. Tavern. Shuttered tavern,” “Motown Crown”; Reverie—Midwest African-American Literature: “Doubledutch,” “Closest to Heaven”; River Styx: “Tenzone,” “Ooo, Baby, Baby”; Roanoke Review: “His for the Taking”; Sugar House Review: “First Friction,” “Laugh Your Troubles Away!”; Tin House: “Baby of the Mistaken Hue”; Word Warriors—35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution: “Asking for a Heart Attack.”

Special thanks to Kwame Dawes, Cave Canem, the National Book Foundation, and the enduring light of Gwendolyn Brooks. She taught me Chicago.