Poems are not advertisements braying For the good life They have serious work to do Birthing people burying people Celebrating joy mourning loss

I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops.

and sometimes I sitdown at my typewriterand I thinknot of someonecause there isn't anyoneto thinkabout and i wonderis it worth it

so julian bond was elected president and rap brown chief justice of the supreme court and nixon sold himself on 42nd street for a package of winstons

and as soon as i die i hope everyone who loved me learns the meaning of my death which is a simple lesson don't do what you do very well very well and enjoy it it scares white folkand makes black ones truly mad

some say we are responsiblefor those we loveothers know we are responsiblefor those who love us

and sometimes on rainy nights you see an old white woman who maybe you'd really care about except that you're a young Black woman whose job it is to kill maim or seriously make her question the validity of her existence

I know this it is difficult to grow up it always was it always will be I know this nobody can tell you how to do it You just make the same mistakes and You just thrill to the same excitementI know this Life is a good idea

The South lost ... and that is good ... and that hateful flag needs to come down ... and reparations need to be offered and if none of that can happen ... well ... let there be poetry