Pencil Lead
for Erica James

so much pleasure, pain
when you love someone

as if I were tall
how she talks to me
when I have always
looked up to her

standard she’s set
nest within limbs, high up

wren’s eggs or robin red breast

on campus, at university
how they used to hop about
peck about the green grass
at Memphis State University

she knows such spaces well
knows what’s cultivated
who’s cultivated

gestures on her part
suggest, imply that I am
though it is up
from among the downtrodden
that I’ve climbed

Aimé Césaire, comes to mind
Frantz Fanon, Algiers
his wretched of the earth

we are the fighters now
we who have inherited
the struggle for dignity,
equality, justice
to be first class

and not just us
across the board
around the globe

that none would be
downtrodden or spat on

it is degradation
that we work against,
war against in our way

she has paint brushes, lead pencils
I have a pen with ink

we both have computer screens
with keyboards
to pound out ideas on

but we ain’t gonna let no body
turn we round

too many rounds won
to lose this battle

too much beauty
not to share it
with mankind

how I wish I were able to locate
able to own, “Shoeshine,”
film made in 1946
by Vittorio De Sica


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
1:25 a.m. 22.02.08