Dear Old Dunbar Dad’s High School Song Both my parents, Clarence and Joetta Powell (Oglesby) were born and raised in Earle, Arkansas (although they didn’t come to know each other and marry until many years later after Dad finished his military duty and Mom migrated north to Chicago, where they met one morning on the El train). They grew up […]
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Broken Legacy Dedicated to John Coltrane Do the bruised brass wailing exclamation scar of history/ suffocating in shadows of projects spread like southern crosses burning/ fall futilely on depressed ears of spiritually deaf/ Do harsh sharp horn shouting preachments sustain chanted sermons to empty pews/Do anyone still listen to John Coltrane laying dead buried in our Black blue souls/sax projected […]
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Give Love to Life Give love to life. Let it linger In laughter and tears. Let our hands Labor to build joy outward From our bones. We’ll raise nations Of chosen people from peaceful womb. Sow seeds/ exhilarated sprouts of hope Swaying in every breath of God. Let love Compose our hearts song. Love is God’s breath Stretching our chests […]
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Lyric for My Sons (I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:14) The poetry of your birth cries Revelatory connect of our eyes Caused Grandma Joetta to sigh From Blood River you rise Move my emotions to devotion Birth inspires […]
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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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