– after Malcom

Blackness is my business

Blackness is the fabric of my life.

Blackness is the carpet spread out before me.

I step into the body of my tribe

I claim my brown eyes

my broad nose

my wide lips

my high buttocks

my coiled hair.

They are my inheritance

they are non-negotiable

they are translations from the Black.

(The sun licks my skin for flavour

and finds me good).

Blackness teaches me song 

I dance it

Blackness teaches me love

I birth it

Blackness teaches me silence

I hear it. 

My blackness is a witness

There is nothing like my Blackness.

My Blackness has given

the family of lions its name

The name of my Blackness

is pride.

the altar of music

when i was god-thirsty

she loved me like water

cool in my throat

tonic of a woman

song of a woman

a sweet, cool liquid

spirit of a woman

her horse was the colour of music

dancing and pied

strutting and tossing

legs swift as fire

its neigh a melody

“i heard a low sound,” she said

“i thought it was your voice

 but it was a violin”

“i thought i saw you fleeing,” she said

“a swift dark animal,

 but it was a running deer.”

with gentle, intelligent fingers

she pried me apart like

segments of a fruit

then sang me into being

so that the earth

dark and plush as velvet

could claim and restore me

holding out a hand to raise me

she unlocked the music with a slow key

in all the houses of my heart

melodies caught in my hair

i stood in my grace

“when you need me, she said, “come,”

“come to the altar of music.”