Gil Scott
By Kamaria Muntu

You dreamed dreams of earth
your voice choking up the Mississippi
until dams broke in our minds
and the untenable blues became thoughts we could act upon

Water rising slowly, pneumonia licking our skin
We the newly baptised walked for the first time
into the cold winds of the winter beasts

Sometimes the mood was softer
and we’d shuffle seeds across your album covers
listening to your soul-cry teach us how to rhyme our blood

We thought we remembered something
like our grandmother being dragged out into the yard
or our grandfather sitting in a room most days with the blinds drawn

Life should have been gentler

but even when you could no longer chew
new york city ice
and your ears and eyes bubbled with distemper
we flew to you Gil

Your heart no more fastened
as the plagues became infantry
Your soul no less thorough in its truth

And when evening did finally arrive,
we saw how the opiate chains melted
with the sudden aurora
Heard the river sigh and call you,
heard the keyboard drowning out the clang
of the crosses.

Copyright © 2012 by Kamaria Muntu. Kamaria is Editor of Femficatio as well as being a published poet, writer and critic. This poem is dedicated to Gil Scott Heron, born 1949 in Chicago, Illinois and died 2011 in New York City.