The Obama Serenades XIV
The nod,
the knowing smile
of an
old man
in a stoop;
it is
the leaden
weight of
piebald years,
the leaden
weight of
memories
rooted in
stygian depths
of time…
between
the crooked
crotch of
East and
West
Harlem,
a briar patch
where life
in the Big Apple
began…
a poodle's
poop
dropped
carelessly
in walkways
of those
eternally
condemned
to stand,
tip-toe,
and stare
at owners
of crystal
balls…
a gray patch
between
dreams
and a
forbidding
trance,
the knowing
smile
of those
who must
give and
give until
there remains
naught else
to give…
7/23/09
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.
Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.
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