I.

twelve years ago, i met
chitown with $25, two suitcases
and a folder of poems, in search
of myself. you, haki, and malcolm
had knocked enough red dirt
from my eyes to see black.

II.

i have seen your words
change rural fourth graders
into southside pool toughs,
hustling jazz in june.

III.

in class, you ignited riots,
watched us loot and ransack.

IV.

at dinner, your mortality
stiffened me, forced to consider
this in your absence, sobered
by the bone of your words.

©2001, Quraysh Ali Lansana

Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of three poetry collections, including southside rain (Third World Press, 2000), a children’s book, a PBS award-winning poetry video, and editor of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill’s African American Literature Reader and two anthologies of young adult literature. He is the former artistic director of Chicago’s Guild Complex, an NEA award-winning literary center, and has been a literary teaching artist for over a decade. He currently serves as an editor at Holt, Rinehart and Winston and is poetry editor of Black Issues Book Review. Quraysh is a University Fellow in the Creative Writing Program at New York University and a fellow of the Cave Canem Writer’s Workshop. In 1999, Quraysh was awarded the Henry Blakely Award, presented by the late Gwendolyn Brooks.

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