A poem written after listening to a student recite a poem laced with profanity and sexual imagery of women.

A POEM FOR LAWRENCE


Black as the night
Black as the bottomless pit
Black as the ship that stole us away
Black as in Black Love
Black As
Black As
Not Black as in Black Ass
Or Black ass So and So
Not Black as in that Black Nigga Ass
But Black as in Black Love
Black as in Harriet and Sojourner

Black as in Nat
Turning darkness into light
Black as Garvey
Black as Malcolm
Black as King and Fannie Lou
Moving toward love and black power
Black as in Black Solidarity


November 2004
Inspired by listening to a young black man's "spoken word" performance at a college Black Solidarity Dinner. In one stanza he spoke bluntly about a woman he knew and what sexual things she did--to him. I judged him before he could get back to his seat, convicting him on the spot for speaking from a place devoid of blackness. I never told him what I thought. Instead I wrote my own poem for him.