The Story Behind the Story of Lil Walter of 125th & Amsterdam
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Story Behind the Story of Lil Walter of 125th & Amsterdam
forget about creational myth.folklore is a southern transplant,
artisan of linguistic smoothsoothsayer. lay it on like stone—
cadillac pusher, bowlegged walker,master of baby lemme holla,
lost in time’s continuum, brown’smanchild in the city, goins’
kenyatta realized & hurtremembered. the suit razor
sharp—keeper of supa-dude emblem—gold medallion swinger—care free
up from bama red dirt with rain wateroverflowing creeks & crawfish
hidden in mud-slits. walter leapedover lucid streams daily to prove
distance did not exist, but it doesdaily as some thing tries to erode
the brickwork in him, tender youthdried up into a fist—the world
changed so quick & shaped whatcannot be plucked from a wishbone—
hard times prepared what is & whatwalter will be, on the corner lost— [End Page 570]
RANDALL HORTON, born in Birmingham, AL, is author of Hook: A Memoir (Augury Books, 2015). Pitch Dark Anarchy (Triquarterly/Northwestern University Press) is his latest poetry collection. He is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Pen America’s Pen Prison Writing Program. This Associate Professor of English at the University of New Haven is a member of the band Heroes Are Gang Leaders, a group whose unique blend of blues, jazz, funk, hip hop, go-go, R&B, soul, classical music, poetry, dramaturgy, and prose continues the legacy of Amiri Baraka.
