(no subject)
From "I Am The Darker Brother", an athology of modern poems by African Americans
childhood remembrances are always a drag
if you're Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have
your mother
all to yourself and
how good the water felt when you got your bath from
one of those
big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never across how much you
understood their feelings
as the whole family attended meeting about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father's pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
and though you're poor it isn't poverty that
concerns you
and though they fought a lot
it isn't your father's drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmasses
and I really hope no white person ever has cause to
write about me
because they never understand: Black love is Black
wealth and they'll
probably talk about my hard childhood and never
understand that
all the while I was quite happy
-"Nikki-Rosa", by Nikki Giovanni
childhood remembrances are always a drag
if you're Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have
your mother
all to yourself and
how good the water felt when you got your bath from
one of those
big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never across how much you
understood their feelings
as the whole family attended meeting about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father's pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
and though you're poor it isn't poverty that
concerns you
and though they fought a lot
it isn't your father's drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmasses
and I really hope no white person ever has cause to
write about me
because they never understand: Black love is Black
wealth and they'll
probably talk about my hard childhood and never
understand that
all the while I was quite happy
-"Nikki-Rosa", by Nikki Giovanni