THE BLUE MELVIN

The choir said to me: Sweetback,
what happened to the sun?
Nigga this, Nigga that,
then more Hallelujahs,
God’s gonna trouble the water.
There wasn’t all the de rigueur
you see nowadays.
This was when there were no protests
outside the Blues & Spirituals,
because no one believed words
were more important than music.
All the maverick Negroes
were eating croissants
in the Bye & Bye by then.
Broke my heart.
I must have run
all the way to Galilee chanting
They won’t bleed me. Won’t bleed me
Trouble ain’t no place to be!
I woke up in Paris
with a kazoo for a grin.
I kept my Cable-car
Conductor’s card though.
This little light of mine.
I’m gonna let it shine,
you know that one?
I wanted to say more
so when I came back Stateside
I started singing
what the Germans call sprechstimme.
I invented rap.
I discovered Earth, Wind & Fire.
The choir sang “Stormy Weather”
and I decided there would be no scene
in which something is broken
& after which everything is changed.
I was plenty black
& deep down dirty dog scared.
Half Panther, half panhandler.
I dreamed I was on a ship
& woke up on a ship.
But if God’s gonna trouble the water,
what I care about a little rain?

THE BLUE SEUSS

THE BLUE SEUSS

Blacks in one box
Blacks in two box
Blacks on
Blacks stacked in boxes stacked on boxes
Blacks in boxes stacked on shores
Blacks in boxes stacked on boats in darkness
Blacks in boxes do not float
Blacks in boxes count their losses
Blacks on boat docks
Blacks on auction
Blacks on wagons
Blacks with masters in the houses
Blacks with bosses in the fields
Blacks in helmets toting rifles
Blacks in Harlem toting banjoes boots and quilts
Blacks on foot
Blacks on buses
Blacks on backwood hardwood stages singing blues
Blacks on Broadway singing too
Blacks can Charleston
Blacks can foxtrot
Blacks can bebop
Blacks can moonwalk
Blacks can beatbox
Blacks can run fast too
Blacks on
Blacks and
Blacks on knees and
Blacks on couches
Blacks on Good Times
Blacks on Roots
Blacks on Cosby

Blacks in voting booths are
Blacks in boxes
Blacks beside
Blacks in rows of houses are
Blacks in boxes too

THE BLUE STROM

THE BLUE STROM

Never let the ink
of biographers touch you,
but if it happens
learn what you can
of their witchcraft.
It will be useful
should you ever find yourself
without linen.
I would never have risen
above backwoods,
bow-tied Superintendent
or circuit judge had I not studied
the alchemy of metaphor.
There are maybe two dozen gaps
in a given sentence.
Never mistake silence
for death or obedience.
Just because an anthem can’t be heard
over the bluegrass
of lawn parties and amphitheaters
doesn’t mean it can’t be sung.
If you stand on the porch
of the state house on a Sunday
you will hear the great flag
of the confederacy.
On some occasions
you may have to lower an earlobe
to the tongue whipping in the mouth
of the one Negro servant
who remains when everything else
is burned. Avoid anyone,
even your secretary, who talks
openly about revenge.