Gumbo

Wake me like a lake
after December, sugar--

The cold water
someone dips into, hollers

Baby, break the airlock
the fish feel safe under

all winter, looking up
through clouds of ice

to feet that seem like sky
     _____

Do not pass me by
like those roadside signs

offering p'nuts
tomato fresh

Drive me instead round
the bend, bananas,

crazy, coconut
milk, sweet sweet

corn scraped clean
off the cob--

I hate corn creamed
but for you I'd stay

lost in the maize
Or even open on up

a Green Giant can
aswim, au jus

Honey, I'll play
the kernel & you

can fire me
till I up & pop
     _____

Child, cradle
& grave me

Keep me safe or least
keep me

near--You are
the ruler & I the fool

Lady, leave me
dirty, near

empty & alone
as a motel pool.

Copyright © 2001 by Kevin Young.

Kevin Young is Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of To Repel Ghosts (2001) and Most Way Home (1995), selected by Lucille Clifton as part of the National Poetry Series and winner of the John C. Zacharis First Book Prize from Ploughshares.

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