Yusef Komunyakaa - Potions

[shaluvk.livejournal.com]

Yusef Komunyakaa - Potions



The old woman made mint
Candy for the children
Who'd bolt through her front door,
Silhouettes of the great blue

Heron. She sold ten-dollar potions
From a half-lit kitchen. Chinese boxes
Furnished with fliers & sinkers. Sassafras
& lizard tongues. They'd walk out

Of the woods or drive in from cities,
Clutching lovesick dollar bills
At a side door that opened beside
A chinaberry tree. Did their eyes

Doubt under Orion as voices
Of the dead spoke? They carried
Photos, locks of hair, nail clippings,
& the first three words of a wish.

Comments

Ah..

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

Potions.. brings back amazing memories of carefree days of Poetry reading during my Undergraduate days.

Thanks for this, really!

./w

Re: Ah..

[shaluvk.livejournal.com]

my pleasure! i totally fell in love with komunyakaa's work when i read his poem 'my father's love letters'. that directed me to first lay my hands onto the 'jazz poetry anthology' edited by him. superlative. :-)