Walk Loosely To The Light

2013
by J. Otis Powell‽ 

Written expressly for poetry & pie

Biography and biology unfold and we 
Find us bound in habit
Tied to identity 
Herstory
Their story
Acculturated
Assimilated    
What turns us inside
What makes us crazy 
Makes us remember
Forget
Walk loosely
A tall elegant griot advised 
Let it hang 
Push meaning 
Fire is needed more than light
So orange lilies scream at the sun
For redemption or 
Ghosts
Or something magnanimous  
Screaming to the further  
An outer sphere
To sky for a bigger life 
For freedom 
Wisdom enough to hallow searching  
That’s duende 
A flower is a lovesome thing
When it screams
We struggle to paraphrase clichés 
Into something more authentic to our story 
By reaching for unfamiliar sense
We scat forgetting words
We’re afraid to say 
Blue skies and long days 
In our urban forest
Are fleeting in the heartland
Summer starts of a sudden 
And as salty sweat dries
In air conditioned illusion
We shiver wanting change
Gardening for fresh realities that 
Will nourish us enough through another 
Nine months of retreat into darkness and cold
Minnesnowta greens quickly and lush
Because vegetation knows mortality 
Between Decoration Day and Labor Day
Bookends of appropriated political movements
And barbeque celebrations 
Short intense summer starts at solstice 
And is gone by the Autumnal Equinox 
Urban farmers and gardeners know 
Their window of opportunity depends
On disappearance of last snow and 
Return of first frost so they prognosticate 
And poise ready to react to chance