Romus Simpson
if i look north
across an auburn field of laughter
chorusing and rising like a hallelujah into dusk
each windy small town a quick billowing mile of starlit faces
ribbons of night hands and negro noses
each fine eye a fire at dusk a filament of
the tall white and blue day gone
every hand handling me with care
if i look north with all that tenderness behind me
out into the alluvial blue dusk world
in the incipient current of late roses and gold
then wander on into the held star laden breath of a northern night
it would be losing you my friend
that simple effort away from here
toward the roof of the world
into other arms....
and if those negro hands
that ferried me here blind
through a thicket of walnut trees and universe
up the primeval coast by error or by omen
took from me their kinship like
removing a silver tooth from their smiles
and singing no more savannah sundays forever
or wading in water from my quiet barren shore
it would be waking one morning
and not being able to place your face
in any mirror of poetry in my life
be it said
remember me
where poor men gather and share
where hunger is the most strict education
licking hoarse in the belly and throat
when you lift your weary bodies
& each nap falls defiant upon your head
then to the factories that consumed your fathers
when the ritual journey runs the road low and smooth
each day to wherever you cast your heart away....
and though tomorrow
when morning crows begin their searches
and shadows recede across the ruins of the used night
and sun drowns the trees brown & silver
like moving soft shoulder into my grandmother's hair
i may be gone in a rich breath of starling
taken up when they first come gathered chanting
honed through every ripe orchard in your luminous county
then cast against the wide god face sky
Copyright (c) 2003 by Romus Simpson
Romus Simpson is a poet and weight trainer who lives in Delano, California. I located
several listings after a quick search. Please visit also:
http://www.muse-apprentice-guild.com/spring_2003/romussimpson-poetry/home.html
http://www.muse-apprentice-guild.com/winter_2003/romussimpson/home.html"
http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/19/simpson19.html
http://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/ppa239.html#fp1