DEEPER INTO FEBRUARY MICHAEL S. HARPER

 

DEEPER INTO FEBRUARY, MICHAEL S. HARPER

No, no, no.

Ernest hesitancy

not the other guy

sounds like train

bumping over tracks

lining crosswise, cross

ways, turn

at hesitancy

arriving charred,

charged

this river

surfacing

Caverns at Montesino

how long

Caballero Andante

how long

*

Aretha Special on PBS

and Nat King Cole

after dinner

not Gaines

and a quilt

Mountain Man

*

Cornbread from the oven

Michael Harper

Nina Simone singing in French

All the lives in your poems

matter to me

Mr. Michaeltree Songline

And your notes

in the back of the book

they matter

art being the only appropriation

a steady march

rootless exile

demanding wildness

a fearless (Who has one? Who has one?)

What I always thought

You said

I knew you were older

We are from the same time

I knew we would meet

Now this way, no, no,

you young, so young

such listening

me, old

this song new

now, now, now

Jim Bodeen

11 February 2021