Black Man

See that band all dressed in white? The leader looks like an Israelite
See that band all dressed in red? It looks like the band that Moses led.

I, too, know a man…with an intellect swifter than an eagle and a faith stronger than a lion
I knew nothing of speed and strength until I stood on a mountain with my back against this man who is an ancient tree
A tree whose roots bend low enough to reach deep into the middle of the Earth and capture oil thick like beads
Of pure black gold and liquid stone
A tree whose leaves blow fiercely in the wind unrustled, unloosened and unflown
Stretching high to the heavens, pulling at the fruits of paradise and delivering the scent of righteousness

Statuesque Black and Beautiful

Architects have no tools with which to fashion the form of this pure golden genius

I knew nothing of love until I knew that love was not of flesh nor blood, Mars nor Venus

Love – not of ode nor ballad nor limerick nor sonnet

Love not of the world nor things in it

But love in spite of it and love unspoken except in the whisper of branches low and strong

Where we find simply the dust that is trust and makes us

Brother and sister – Tigris and Euphrates

Flow measured not in miles but in centuries

Depth measured not in leagues but in history

I, too, know a man…

with a soul like rain and

a caring like clouds moving in strict formation over oceans of disappointment, calamity, pain that will wade

Wade in the water. Wade in the water, children. Wade in the water. God’s gonna trouble the water.

A soul that paints music from here to the very bottom flap of time

where we will meet and sit planning the future of a new line in which

learning and compassion shall be king and queen

and jazz shall be a study of the rotation of a new Earth with no axis

and we will know we indeed

Begat this flipping in the ghetto on a dirty mattress

no matter how far or near it will be evident that holy places have committed to rear us

and raise us in a mighty song for which poetry will itself sing and be reborn again…

I, too, know a man.