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Down To The River
Down To The River
TO THE RIVER
CAIL JUDY
by Cail Judy
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechani-
cal means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the author.
Cail Judy
Website: http://www.cailjudy.com
ISBN-13 978-0-9798377-0-8
To Hannah Mary Jenkins
Acknowledgments
Twentieth-Century Miracle
Preacher Man
I had to kick their law into their teeth in order to save them.
—Gwendolyn Brooks
RUSH RIVER, RUSH
I’m paper-thin
Drunk on gin
I’m a curiosity
Some say monstrosity
Pull my wires
Sparking fires
Like my dance?
No chance?
He used to think
It was his blackness
That caused all the
Hate.
Like the smell of hot pavement, how it burns your nostrils after a
while.
People would wrinkle their noses
When he walked by.
He was covered in dirt, looking in store windows
Checking out the light displays.
Where does all this electricity come from?
Nobody answered, because you can’t see
an invisible man.
RIDE ON, SWEET JESUS
Klans men
Illustrations on my wall.
Lions in my throat
Let them out.
When the clock no longer
Has battery power
It’s time for BLACK ART
The hate burrrrrrrrrns hot
Eternal
Yellow flame consuming all.
TWO FOUND POEMS
Lighthearted jubilees
Dancing the whole afternoon in Washington Square
Joyful blacks above
Sleeping dead below
Many can still remember
The last days of the fairs.
—John Edgar Wideman, Philadelphia Fire (98)