Who’s going to sing a black boys’ song?

March 17, 2012
By

For Trayvon, Michael and Martin, and all other black boys

 

sable mappings cover him

like an ethno-alien cartogram

dipped deeply and precisely in ebony timber

whipped in/two

industrial multiplexes

distorted by a pre/fix of datum

 

convictions

 

venomous raindrops of marked difference inflate him

perorating from tongue to tongue

oral histories

scientific legends

transmutations

generation to generation

disassembled from psyche to psyche

now born into a world already known

(known for what?)

 

adultification

 

“never havin been a [boy]”

being born a man

where pornographic dreams encrust him

intentions asphyxiate hallucinations of thriving

(thriving for what?)

truth

and freedom

freedom from anxiety

modernity’s signs and symbols

and parasitic epistemes that manipulate his living flesh

 

resurrection

 

somebody/anybody


sing a black [boys’] song

bring [him] out


to know [himself]


to know you


but sing [his] rhythms


carin/struggle/hard times

sing [his] song of life


[he’s] been dead so long


closed in silence so long


[he] doesn’t know the sound


of [his] own voice


[his] infinite beauty

[he’s] half-notes scattered


without rhythm/ no tune


sing [his] sighs


sing the song of [his] possibilities


sing a righteous gospel


the makin of a melody


let [him] be born


let [him] be born


& handled warmly.[1]


[1] Inspired by “lady in brown.”  For more, see Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf (New York: Scribner Poetry, 1975), 3-5.

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9 Responses to Who’s going to sing a black boys’ song?

  1. Monica J. Casper on March 17, 2012 at 10:11 am

    Tamura, this is beautiful.

    xoxo

    • Tamura A. Lomax on March 18, 2012 at 2:32 pm

      Thank you so much!! xoxoxo

  2. David J. Leonard on March 17, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    Powerful!!!

    • Tamura A. Lomax on March 18, 2012 at 2:33 pm

      Thanks so much, David!!!

  3. sisterdeie on March 19, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    Thank you. Crying. Grieving. Can't sleep. Somehow, I have to preach a Lenten service on Wednesday, I'd like read your poem before I preach. Would that be okay? You are writing my heartbreak.

    • Tamura A. Lomax on March 20, 2012 at 1:49 am

      Absolutely. I'm glad that my words "spoke" to you. Please share far and wide. There are many miles to go before we sleep…

  4. Rackley Love on March 20, 2012 at 6:44 am

    Profoundly deep, sister!

  5. Darnell Moore on March 20, 2012 at 9:16 am

    thank you, tamura. powerful. and we shall sing…

  6. tiki michelle on March 21, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    absolutley amazing..

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