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Spiritual for Mama keep your hand on the plow keep your hand on the plow don’t you bend nor ever bow though sack-loads of troubles beat on your brow and busy devils connive to cut you down set your feet in Jah solid ground don’t you ever bend nor bow keep your hand on the plow keep your feet […]
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Modest Proposal Regarding the Attempted Re-Murder of Emmett Till “They murdered that boy, and to hide their dastardly act, they tied barbed wire to his neck and to a heavy gin fan and dumped him into the river for the turtles and the fish.” Prosecutor Gerald Chatham That boy is still dead. News at 10. I’m neither a doctor, scientist […]
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Shut It Down Old school jams are pulsing from barbershop speakers. The television screen is silently playing an old Will Smith shoot-em-up. Bad Boys I think. The buzz and percussion of electric and manual clippers blend with music and man chatter: a sound that takes me back all the way to childhood with my dad, rest in peace. Now I’m […]
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Return to New York City Wee hour flight out of night into past and future future and past Emotions commingling Return to New York City Decades of strata removed from the streets I ran From job to job late night on screaming graffiti gallery trains moving faster than light speed and slower than the grind of earth A wife, two […]
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Dolores Marie Costa (Returning to NYC, July 2018) I don’t know you nor your ghost, the relic of your being buried like dinosaur bones of under traumatized ground touch Your name Like a spirit archaeologist Trying to find you But the stone is cold and ornate Maybe you are in the stream Of water descending into hole Square grave hole […]
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Twenty One Years (In celebration of the 21st Anniversary of our union) You are rhythm to my days, music read and memorized, notes improvised on breaths of our love, tempo that moves me higher and higher. Heartbeat that compels me to give thanks for the gift. You, exhaling life and love gifts In every breath. in every morning glory, no […]
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Reunion Welcome (To my family, with love, reflecting on our 2018 Reunion) Blues guitar whining Voices intertwining Roots kin binding Time stream unwinding Memories in the making Together undertaking Soul ties demonstrating Love orchestrating Celebrating graces Of new little faces And those long in the race The weight bends time and space We stay in far places But the distance […]
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Tall as Trees (against state sponsored abuse of any Hueman’s child) Under soft yellow lights Clothes racks, tags hanging Like strange fruit, towered over Little me. I couldn’t see Over them to find daddy Who was taller than trees. Stay right there he told me But, I wandered, into a strange land A hostile place, clothes rack Monsters Closing in […]
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Thoughts of Martin’s Dream Blood in the streets and schools suggest the check America wrote at its inception continues to bounce. Hope is shaken and corrupted. Our future is on trial as a people and a nation. Yet I still dream, Martin, like you taught me. My child eyes saw you in the black and white screen speaking Hueman sense […]
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Graces in Small Places (A Song of Praise) Jah Love is intimate More than we appreciate Beyond what we orchestrate What we need to liberate Higher inward elevations Fruit bearing meditations Jah soul ministrations Day by day salvations Jah give graces in small places Shared love across all faces Wisdom dropped from ageless ages: The Ancient of Days. The breath […]
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