14 haiku
(for Emmett Till)
dormant buds sudden
no grey coats stroll bright hued crews
laughter from the stoop
Hear that laugh? Fourteen,
Big-talkin' Chicago boy.
Snappy dresser too.
Juke joints, fish ("you caught
yourself") fries, kinfolk ... (home) ...
Lyric Uncle Mose
... come to the Delta ...
It ain't [what a stooo-ry!] Chi-
cago she warned him
train windows. windswept
prairie grass to wetland mag-
nolias, world to world.
so many (creek div-
ing, story swapping, joking,
boasting) cousins!
before and after
a wolf whistle can split time
southern cousins know
Why? (budding story-
teller, laugh-getter, bright-eyed
joker) For the laughs?
"Mose will send me home"
promise, forget ... fate-free youth
safe on Dark Fear Road
it's chaos -- "where's " -- "not from" --
-- "money..." -- "wanna die?!" -- "...cago"
"please" -- pulled from his bed
the truck lights spanish
moss hangs from the poplar trees
dark answers "it's him"
toolhouse, a dim bulb
swings, someone passing tries not ...
cries for his mother
beat so bad they can't
tell "it's him" pulled from the cruel
rough Tallahatchie
On a bus, two months
passed, Rosa Parks said no. "I thought
About Emmett Till."