AfroPoets Famous Writers

Communion in a Small Room


                        for sherley:
                        whose epigraph I stole
                        to make the blues-blue!
                        -Michael S. Harper


"I give it to you Michael"

It's not enough to sit here
and feel the soft explosive
wow! the silent yesyes, speak
it   mouth the awe full god
damn. (That don't make it real

"I give it to you Michael"
                                     My
words but they don't answer your
call.

"I give it to you Michael"

          I am not,
                       your audience.
The line converge here, spread

"I give it to you Michael"

We live in that pattern, are
us, now; are all.

"I give it to you Michael - "

                       No. (That ain't
Truth. It has always been ours:
Speech verifies communion
between living and living
quick and dead in this small room.

Written by Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999)

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