gold: a poem for the anniversary of motown


jazz cat
wailed phat
coal black skin
heavy shades
delta made
whinin up a din

husky purr
sexy slur funky
hat
all
that

& lip
tremblin sweat
beadin finger
flyin more

lazy on legato
funky at staccato
gentle dark
& dawdlin

history
& adored

mississippi new
york city cool
like ice
but sure
not pretty

turned itself to gold
brother vinyl
through the roof

(c) Maxine Clarke 2008

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian author and slam poet of Afro- Caribbean descent. Her short fiction collection Foreign Soil won the 2015 ABIA Award for Best Literary Fiction and the 2015 Indie Award for Best Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her memoir, The Hate Race, her poetry collection Carrying the World, and her first children’s book, The Patchwork Bike, will be published by Hachette in late 2016.

More by Maxine Beneba Clarke ›

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