Black Diamond Poem by David Saltaire

1.
You were always my
black diamond,
reality preacher
deeper thinker.
Not for you the easy song
of love and longing,
selfish obsessions.

You sang,
'This is my country.'

You sang,
'if you could choose the color…'

2.
Black diamond in the rough
on the tagged and battered
avenue of midnight.
I celebrate your dark glitter.
In your quivering, wounded falsetto
you gave voice to the ghetto child
running wild, crying out of his soul,
'My God, my God,
why wouldn't they just let me be? '

Soaring like a black bird
over the power lines
hung with old shoes
blaring with poverty
heaving with trash and rusted cars
You sang,
'Freddie’s dead
on the corner, now…'
you sang his black mass
with a full heart
an angel’s breath.
And then,
with urban irony,
'If you wanna be a junkie, wow! '

3.
Urban trubador,
dark poet
black diamond!
how you glitter
even in the night’s despair;
nervous strings behind you
shivering in the howl of night.
You dared them:
look beyond
your heavy doors,
look me in the face!
See
reflected in my shine
yourselves,
so trapped and blind.

What do you mean
when you say 'nigger'
'jew', 'whitey'?
Don't you know? 'We're all gonna go! '
Turning that thought
into a whirlpool
swirling us out to a lonely road
to confront nakedly,
our own
toxic stupidity.

4.
Stand up, slight man
in the club’s spotlight
smile a little.
Sooth us down with your weeping axe
let us settle in...
draw the room into your mind
until we shine
shine!

Black Diamond,
my man Curtis,
loving poet
of the brilliant night
turn them towards the light
singing, 'Right on, right on
for the darkness.'