A Poem for Sterling Brown
- A Poem For Sterling Brown *
what song shall i sing you amid epidemic prophecies where holy men bleed like water over the bones of black children?
how shall i call your name sitting priest/like on mountains raining incense scented dancer of the sun?
where shall memory begin you overturning candles rocking cemented eyes closed flowers opening like eastern deities under your hand?
and your words. tall as palm/trees black with spit soothing the lacerated mind.
and your words. scratching the earth carving dialect men into pyramids where no minstrel songs run from their thighs.
your soul. dodging loneliness and the festivals of Renaissance rhythms your life skintight with years a world created from love. [End Page 868]
you. griot of fire. harnessing ancient warriors.
a ye ye ye ye ye ye ye a yo yo yo yo yo yo yo da a ye loom boom da a ye loom boom da a ye loom boom boom/boom boom/boom boom/boom you. griot of the wind glorifying red gums smiling tom-tom teeth.
Sonia Sanchez is author of more than twenty books, including Under a Soprano Sky, Homegirls & Handgrenades, and Does Your House Have Lions? She is Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Temple University.
Footnotes
* Reprinted with permission of the author from I’ve Been A Woman: New and Selected Poems (1987).
