Henry Dumas Poems

Take up the blood from the grass, sun.
Take it up.
These people do not thirst for it.
Take up the insect children that play in
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First there was the earth in my mouth. It was there like a running stream, the July fever sweating the delirium of August, and the green buckling under the sun.
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for Jay Wright

my ole man took me to the fulton fish market
we walk around in the guts and the scales
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Beloved,
I have to adore the earth:

The wind must have heard
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Vodu green clinching his waist,
obi purple ringing his neck,
Shango, God of the spirits,
whispering in his ear,
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Up
from Msippi I grew.
(Bare walk and cane stalk
make a hungry belly talk.)
...

I
Neon stripes tighten my wall
where my crayon landlord hangs
from a bent nail.
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