Is it a mirror?
the sheen of
reflection
facing the night
air
is this glass thick?
translucent
glass
is that a car light?
of a passing motorist
sending in
the head light
beams
showing us
the light.
12/25/96
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
No. 31 The Great Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence
There were houses up
north
row houses
with apartments
stacked on top of
one another
and indoor toilets
no more outhouses
for me
if you can’t afford
a
flat
maybe you can
afford a
room
rooms ,cheap meals & good
nice people
and if can’t afford that
they got
warm beds
pay for an eight hour rest
n you straight
12/18/96
No. 16 The Great Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence
A figure
bent with
grief
A woman in an orange
sack dress her
head upon the
table
tears in her eyes
She remembers Jake
his strong embrace
his powerful tawny
hands
his strong back
He’s gone now
They found him
dangling from
an old oak tree
his arm limp
his body broken
castrated
he was lynched
white men talked in
the town as if
they were proud.
Jake’s death was an
Emblem of white manhood
Adorned in all its cowardice
all its sickness
throughout
all this the white woman
stood firmly
by the white man’s side.
Jake’s widow
cried
her tears will
not be
forgotten
No.10 The Great Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence
the light blue
of the blues
for the blues is pain
the blue of your
empty belly
that yearns for
a full dinner pail
like the one you
be promised
a luxury that
only seems to be
known by a people
of a color whiter
than your own
NOAH
God commanded me
to build an ark
too much wickedness in the world he tells me
the entire world must be destroyed
he must start the world anew
I do as he asks
the ark is built
He tells me to load my family upon the ark
and carry aboard every animal in the world in pairs
in this way the species can live
I do as he asks
I have to, he’s God
then he tells me to take along seven animals of each kind that is used
for sacrifice
in this way we can remain holy before the Lord
I do as he asks
my neighbors laugh and make fun of me
then it rains
forty days and forty nights.
we live in the ark
the flood waters rise until they engulf the world.
everyone and everything human or animal upon the world
dies.
the rain stops
I send forth a dove and it brings back an olive branch
when I release him again
he does not return
there is land for the waters have receded
there is hope for God has blessed us
he has promised never to destroy us by water or flood
he has placed his bow upon the sky
I am Noah
and I do as the Lord commands me
I am Noah
Noah
Noah…
4/23/08
5 haiku poems for sex and the prison
1
they put white men in charge of
a prison who delight
in African women’s sex
2
the rule is that Correctional Officers are not to have sex
with the wives/daughters/nieces/girl friends/ex girlfriends
and other womenfolk of the inmates
3
The rule is difficult to enforce
when the officer is African American
given the high rate of incarceration
of African American men
4
the rule is difficult to enforce
when the officer is European descent i.e. white
given the systems liberal attitude
with the sexual indecencies of white males
5
they hired more African American female Correctional Officers
the attitude of most of the Correctional Officers
especially the white ones
was that they were readily available since many were on welfare
2/7/2010