[Maya Angelou's “No No No No”]
I have waited
Toes curled, hat rolled
Heart and genitals
In hand
On the back porches
Of forever
In the kitchens and fields
Of rejections
On the cold marble steps
Of America's White Out-House
In the drop seats of buses
And the open flies of war
No more
The dream that you
Will cease haunting me
Down in fetid swamps of fear
And will turn to embrace your own
Humanity
Which I AM
No more
The hope that
The razored insults
Which mercury-slide over your tongue
Will be forgotten
And you will learn the words of love
Mother Brother Father Sister Lover Friend
My hopes
Dying slowly
Rose petals falling
Beneath an autumn red moon
Will not adorn your unmarked graves
My dreams
Lying quietly
A dark pool under the trees
Will not carry your name
To a forgetful shore
And what a pity
What a pity
That pity has folded in upon itself
And old man's mouth
Whose teeth are gone
And I have no pity