KWANSABA: Aunt Sue’s Mess O’ Greens and: Empathy
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KWANSABA: Aunt Sue’s Mess O’ Greens
Simmered slowly with a chunk of saltpork, smoothing out its bitter flavor. Icould not wait, to dip my cornbread into that rich potlikker. AlGreen’s voice wailing in the kitchen, couldn’tstop those clanging pots & pans; whereboth her feet, were placed, with care.
Empathy
I feel a song
trapped deep within theclosing of my
mouth. The tight holdof my breath. Control
this melody that Ican’t contain. This
spoken gospelspilling from my
ballpoint, onto thisblank sheet. My soul is
the soul of anangel that’s just begun. [End Page 759]
Kenny Fame is a graduate of Cave Canem’s 2011 Poetry Conversations Workshop. He was the winner of the 2010 National Black Writers Conference Award for Poetry and a featured “Poet of the Week” on PoetrySuperHighway.com in January 2012. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Steel Toe Review, River Lit, The Fine Line, Emerge Literary Journal, Rufous Salon (Sweden), Milk Sugar, the prompt, De La Mancha, and the New Verse News.
