Wind Over Harlem

I belt

the blues

echoing Lady Ella’s alto

       carving five-story

              red brick

                apartments on

                         Harlem’s horizon

        I carry

        sorrow like a violin’s whine

        wafting through windows

             harassing curtains

                 like ragged Mack

                     with his passers-by

                            down there

                                 he clutches bottle and tin cup

                                                           on the corner

                I drift

                a thin line   balancing

                my beat between

                    b  r  e  e  z  y and BUFFETING

                             Sweeping leaves and cigarette

                                   halves across the street Carefully

                                           teasing Tessa’s tresses

                                                     braids new-set and shining

                        I was

                        birthed by Papa’s

                                 G A L E  F O R C E temper

                                  smashing bashing

                                               CLASHING

                                                    on cold-front Mama

No wonder

I feel right blowing

     my song Swaying

         the beat on

             these hot-blooded streets

Cry

This ephemeral release

does please this moment,

but teasing my heart’s song, it sits

like a monkey throwing ****

taunting my soul

haunting my wits

flaunting its toll

gaunt-like I fight to keep it, that peace, but

it’s just ephemeral release.

If you so please

            would you pass up that bit

            makes me feeling like it

            is not in my control, this role, this place we call WIFE

This is my life, my life!

So don’t you mind if I find my way

with a few stray

tears here and there; they’ll cease.

It’s just an ephemeral release.