Calling His Children Home
- Calling His Children Home
for Buddy Bolden
Imagine a picture frame that is really a window, weathered white, wide open. In the background, dark arms flex to collar a note—blow it strum it beat it to the cut. All you see is the bell of a horn, or a valve, shiny as a silver dollar. His cornet comes toward you, pushing through the window, leaving the frame. You look straight into the deep black mouth— it is talking, loud. Come on, it calls. You’re almost here.
Selected works by Natasha Trethewey:
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• Accounting
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• Beginning
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• Calling His Children Home
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• Closing Time
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• Deedywops
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• Delta Sharecroppers, 1930
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• Expectant
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• History Lesson
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• Hot Comb
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• The House Down the Street
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• Saturday Drive
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• Secular
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• The Four Corners
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• Laying the Waves
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• An Interview with Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey, a member of the Dark Room Collective, is studying for the Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), where she received the M.F.A. in creative writing in 1995. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Massachusetts Review, Seattle Review, Agni, The Southern Review, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Callaloo.
