Devorah Major

city scat

we come to this city
of concrete, brick
steel and toil

country people
knowing the earth

sea faring people
reading the tides

gambling people
holding jokers and spades

we come to this city

hard laughin’
weep sob wailin’
prayin’ celebratin’ people
bending and sweating

we come to
this hiss crack
slap snap
siren whirl
holler
electric zip
and burn
city

rounding
bustling corners
banging our heads
against destiny
and crumbling
brick walls of confusion

we come to this city
that can cage us
enrage us
deny us
revile us
turn us
from friends and family
into prey and predator

we live in this city
this hip howl
she bop
da he bop
da we bop
bang clang
swinging city

we reclaim our neighbors
in the hood who
keep our hearts beating
with the rhythms of drums

we come to this city
and we name it ours

enter my beloved

endings are always beginnings in love’s orbit
a seed tenacious and tender that throws us forth

we twine the lattice trellis as both vine and fruit
reeling and falling from the drunken heat above

alive and vibrant love looms just beyond the horizon
as we open ourselves fully to its redolent breath

cautious of the price that will be extracted
by loving incompletely, thoughtlessly or unaware

enter once more my beloved, let me become the lessons
love with the abandon and depth of a wild ocean



the room where my uncle died
                        for Uncle Howard

1. morning

the man who dismantled the bed
was quiet and efficient
his eyes locked on his task
first the mattress
quickly carried out
then the head and foot braces
springs and pulley

he comes
after the dying is finished
to collect the equipment
and take it to a warehouse
where it is cleaned and readied
for the next customer

he acknowledged
but did not see
my aunt, my father, me

he told us
we could keep the pillows
as he made one last trip
for the wheel chair and then
offered condolences
before leaving with the slightest of shivers
as he pulled shut the screen door.

2. temporary guest room

I lay on the narrow
lumped maroon couch
and notice his barely used
size twelve white athletic shoes
still rest in a corner

the table full of medicine vials
and peanut butter cups
is not yet cleared

there are flowers wilting and dried
that must have arrived before the last
brain spasm, exhalation, thought

he is not in the room
despite the many shadows
that paint its walls

the maple tree
and the top of a pine
and a corner of dark blue sky
shine through the far window
where he would have looked
when he still could see

i finally stumble into the sleep of the dead
pulled into a series of dreams
that come and then leave
without a lingering whisper

3. after the funeral

i shut the door
re-clothe myself in colors
do not look for my uncle
in the corners of this room
see him instead
in my aunt’s tears
and my heart

snap

just like that
cat says it’ll

snap

reminds me how
when we were teens
we were negro

and then

snap

we were black and proud
and moving forward
claiming victories every day
on our streets
in our schools
in our souls

we’ve always been
an elastic people able to
snap ourselves
back to ourselves
time and time again

cat says she can feel it
smells it in the air
sweet and sour like it was then
only with more love this time
and a sharper even more dangerous edge

then like now
things were seething
people were hungry and
unjustly imprisoned
and mis-educated
and drugged
but then as civil rights’ long pull was bearing fruit
we snapped into a revolutionary force
climbed inside our ancestral core
snap
made our music sing change
snap
made our dances say now
snap
locked arms and spirits
snap
became a dark
snap moving
snap
tide of purpose
snap

we sharpening the rhythm again
bringing out the drums
snap
tightening up
even though we been
tossed by storm
and cracked in the wind
we coming back together
snap
we’ve got to
snap
we got to just pull in
and believe it and
snap this mutha’ back
into place

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Cover Design: Joseph McNair