-
from Autobiography of My Alter Ego
- Callaloo
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 27, Number 2, Spring 2004
- pp. 409-410
- 10.1353/cal.2004.0075
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Callaloo 27.2 (2004) 409-410
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from Autobiography of My Alter Ego
Yusef Komunyakaa
Do you know this tune,
do you know who's playing
tenor? Listen. Listen.
You have to know
who this is, the only one
who would cock his horn
& talk with the angels
& demons of the deep,
trembling night. Listen.
Here's another thing about war:
any man who can plea
through a hunk of brass
this way, could never kill
another man. You can't
talk to God & kill a man
in the same breath. No
way. He loved this tune:
Almost Like Being in Love.
Yes. Listen. That sound
is his, driven by his blood: it isn't
for anyone to steal,
or drip down to nothing
but a whimper in the dark.
I won't let them put rap
or hip-hop on this jukebox,
or any damn race records
either. It has to be truer
than gold. Listen. Listen.
Do you hear what I hear,
how he follows the sound
out of the horn, to the edge?
Where do you think
he's taken us, back to skeletons
chained on the seafloor,
or is he beside Lady Day
standing in buttery sunlight? [End Page 409]
You can almost turn
any corner, can almost
beg to be forgiven
for each carbine, shell, or grenade
your hands lingered on.
...