By the sound of saltwater sweet-talking the shore
As if sweet-talking the earth from her prom dress,
The tide stroking its hands along her inner thigh

And finding the crop of razor bumps
Like the humped tiny backs of shells

And smiling at the thought of the girl preparing
For her prom date, the hair lathered
And shaved away, the air leaving ripples inside

The dress as the knee-high hem is lifted
Above the girl’s waist and breasts,

The sound of the silk passing over her body
Like the sound of the tide uncovering
And then covering the hard news of the day,

The news returning each time it’s washed away.

VARIATION ON A BLACK CINEMA TREASURE: BROKEN EARTH

VARIATION ON A BLACK CINEMA TREASURE: BROKEN EARTH

Broken Earth
Year of Release: 1939
Running Time: 11 minutes
Cast: Clarence Muse and unidentified boy

I am the sick boy in the shack when the camera opens
On the sunrise and wispy silhouettes of the plow
And the fool mule and my father working a row down

The middle of a rock field with a small shack in one corner
And a shade tree in the other where a crew of barefoot

Old black men stoop and sing “All God’s Chillun Wear Shoes”
And call out Hey and Hi and the name of my father
Who goes on plowing into sundown, into the dark hour

When the mule will grunt no farther and the red eyes
Of the black men’s cigarettes blaze and flicker in one corner

Of the field as I quiver in a wet skin in the hot small light
Of the lantern blazing and flickering in the shack.
I am a sick boy. I am as still as a kettle of water. I am waiting

To be rearranged by the hand of God, which is not the hand
Of God, but the strip of cloth pressed against my brow

By my father who has no medicine but prayer.
I don’t know what I did to get here mumbling
“Pappy” and calling out to the ghost of my mother

As a choir sings “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” somewhere.
I don’t know who it is telling me to open my eyes.

VARIATION ON A BLACK CINEMA TREASURE: BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUES

VARIATION ON A BLACK CINEMA TREASURE: BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUES

Boogie Woogie Blues
Year of Release: 1948
Running Time: 10 minutes
Cast: vocalist and pianist Hadda Brooks performing three songs

If you have slept in a house made of nothing but a smile
That drooped around your neck like a five pound chain;
If you have whittled all the virtuous words in the Bible down

To Amen the way pillow talk can be whittled down to a tongue,
You know the name of my song: “Don’t Take Your Love from Me.”

Don’t take your love away from me. Your house key.
Your toothbrush. Your swing and sweet scripture
Of touching and preacher’s breath. Don’t take your fingertips