You are a River to your People
To a friend for his imprisoned son and all the Black Brothers who wade the draining tide
You are a river to your people; counted amongst the names i of those dead or alive, incarcerated; stirring the alluvial carnage of a tentacled past; Hung like Christmas ham as homage for our harvest; Up the Route 66 corridor you fled and leapt ‘cross snake soiled banks where cottonmouths ii spurned your holy step iii and drowned your dream in whimpers. From Canaanite hills to Babylon dreams, they deferred your Sargassian truth. iv We know their dream; their excess of love. v The rod and the staff give comfort. vi The red rain stings a porous page of diluted history. The spiked word vaults ‘cross your indigenous waves where sunlit whispers baptized under a whipping moon. vii A half eaten peach viii rides a naked current and will not return. The belly of Eve is bloated. Her diasporian sin ix brings us to the river and invites us get in, and we, like Eve weep salty tears on brackish waters x and wade the draining tide. Rage, curse, and bless us now; xi beat hell out on the binding bar. xii You are a river to your people; paid tribute for our sin, xiii defiled by the cuffs that hold you back they have replaced the stripes that bore your back rage, curse, and bless us now; Mother Jones’ cookie jar is hidden xiv and our belated, sugar-coated Mr. Goodbar consciousness xv oddly, sadly… bedridden. i allusion to W.B. Yeats’s Easter 1914; political prisoners of the Irish Rebellion; Yeats calls their plight a terrible beauty [that] is born. for future generations to emulate as heroes. ii cottonmouths: venomous snakes = cotton (white) mouths iii allusion to Allen Ginsburg’s Howl; Who are the ones who should be incarcerated?; holy step = step to freedom. iv The lost tribes of Israel were taken from Canaan, the northern kingdom, in bondage to Babylon. Canaan = Africa; Babylon = America. The eel is born in the Sargasso Sea and wanders the earth before returning to its birthplace; its promised land. Deferred Truth allusion to Hughes’ deferred dream. v allusion to W.B. Yeats’s Easter 1914; colonialism; bringing God’s love to the people of the empire while demanding loyalty and submission to the motherland. This second allusion to Easter 1914 reinforces the point that my friend’s son is a political prisoner vi allusion to Psalm 23; the shepherd uses the rod to prod the sheep in a certain direction. Irony: The rod is also used to punish. vii red rain = Christ’s blood; spiked word = Jesus Christ, logos -- in the beginning was the word; hypocrisy of Christians owning slaves, converting Africans; sunlit whispers = slaves hearing the word of God during the day yet being whipped and lynched at night. Africans being baptized by the whip to become Americanized. viii allusion to T.S. Eliot’s Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. Do we dare regain our manhood and act. Also, the peach as fruit of God. Jesus Christ’s return. ix Diaspora: sending out from bondage; in this case from bondage of original sin. Eve is the mother to all people. x allusion to James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist; brackish waters are full of life and rebirth but the tide (contemporary culture) drains our lives. In Portrait, Stephen has a revelation of beauty encompassed in his male potency, carnality, woman, and the essence of being. The plight of the Black Man in America robbed of his manhood. xi allusion to Dylan Thomas’s Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night; Thomas encourages his father to fight for his life. Echoes Nietzsche: It is inhuman to bless where one is cursed. xii allusion to William Carlos Williams’s Paterson Episode 17; poem about the rape of a woman ( Williams calls her a Beautiful Thing) who finds no solace, forgiveness, or redemption except to pound the earth with her fists. xiii As Borges says, “The crucifying of God has not ceased .” xiv Mother Jones allusion to progressive social constructs. xv Mr. Goodbar allusion to our metaphorical maternal instincts.