Track 4: Reflection: As performed by Diana Ross
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Track 4: ReflectionAs performed by Diana Ross
I wanted to reflect the sun.
I wore what glitters, smiled, Left my eyes open, and,
On the ceiling of my mouth,
Balanced a note as long as God allowed, My head tilted backwards, my arms stretched
Out and up, I kept praying,
If the red sun rising makes a sound, Let my voice be that sound.
I could hear the sun sing in 1968.
I learned the word assassin And watched cities burn.
Got another #1 and somebody
Set Detroit on fire. That was power— White folks looking at me
Directly and going blind
So they wouldn’t have to see What in the world was burning black. [End Page 71]
Jericho Brown recently received the Ph. D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston, where he served as the poetry editor of Gulf Coast. Please, his first book of poems, was published by Western Michigan University Press in 2008. His poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, jubilat, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and Callaloo. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of San Diego.
