The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005

Zombie Dance, Tapping the Bloodroot

72 Zombie Dance, taPPinG the blooDroot forKatrina 1 BuddyBoldenspeaksfromtheinsaneasylum It don’t go that way, upsde the wall, down to the woodwork, fallng all over where the wood n the floor breaks off from the Cnote. It’s more lke ths, the way I lean up under the last star on Orion n the first break of sprng, under the catcalls of mockngbrds, the belly grunts of ar knotted up nsde me. Lke t was ths mornng, the sheets full of years of me, the dpper back down n the bucket to wash my dreams untl they make sense. Marie Laveau or her famlar comes back agan, a voce wth no body. Then the roar from the hoodoo and gooba dust, the hammer naled to the tree on a pece of cloth wth dry blood, the valley of full moons lke a python belly wrthng, full of some stll lvng thng. Jazz, make the water one tongue, rse up, rse up, soprano sorceress, sng to the ancent pan all around me, the chorus of how tme began. O water . . . breathe, so the dead can lsten. 73 2 Childreninsuperdomes... Ths old lady’s hand s weaker than mne, and I an’t used to so many people close to breakng, and everybody s so wet. When I look back to where we used to lve, all I see s the way water stand up and be talkng to you, stand up lke t can dance all over the world. It’s so much stuff n here, and I am just a lttle grl tryng to help ths whte lady n ths wheelchar of hers. People get so loud n here I can’t hear myself. Tonght, when I go to sleep, I’m gonna count all the thngs I remember that we had and hope my sster brng them when she come back. Shebettercomeback. I am gonna count my handmade dolls the Vetnam lady gave me, plus all the books I had about dolphns because they are the best. Then I’ll be sleepy and won’t hear nobody cryng n here where everythng s all pled up, lke we all finshed and there an’t nothng else to do . . . forever. 74 ...