ChickenBones: A Journal

for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

   

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new world mysteries . . . / Who is ever ready / for the furious storm / & the dungeon

of isolation / what eye fathoms / the millions of black souls / in the cold murky depths

 

 

 

Praying for a Miracle

By Rudolph Lewis

A day of chilling rain

 

now no leaf stirs

this silent night

sullen with the dark purple 

anxiety of Toussaint—

                       exalted Bonaparte

                               refuses to answer

                                            a letter from

the first of blacks

 

Miles’ delicate march

                    a concerto of fears

                              his intricate horn

                                      wisps of flamenco

& blue sketches

of Spain’s maracas

of desire

& racial conquest—

                  blood-dripping cross

                             & burning flesh,

                                     melancholy helmet

                                          & gunpowder terror

 

new world mysteries . . .

 

Who is ever ready

                     for the furious storm

                                     & the dungeon

                                                  

of isolation

 

what eye fathoms

                      the millions of black souls

                                in the cold murky depths

                                                  of the shifting sea

 

pride & distrust

               a moment of fever

                         under a dome of judgment

 

I withdraw from contested ground

                              for the piercing smile of youth

& the chatter of birds

*   *   *   *   *

7 November 2003

 

 

Home Mosquitoes Fly Out My Head

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