allah told us all
we need to know when he called
mankind hueman beings just because
they dropped the “e” the concept remains
colored cause we recognize
if we add “s” to hisstory why we ain’t
a part of it or put “n” back in
democracy and you’ll understand
the present system war
is raw any way you look
at it even with a spanish touch
and god is a dog
when the romans started counting
they started with one and went to x
an unknown mathematically speaking
so we know they couldn’t deal
with twelve zodiac signs
aquarius died when
they buried atlantis this
is the age of pisces
check it out
Ego Tripping
(there may be a reason why)
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch me
For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
except by my permission
I mean…I…can fly
like a bird in the sky…
A Poem/Because It Came As A Surprise To Me
homosexuality
(an invention of saul
as played to perfection by the pope)
is two people
of similar sex DOING IT
that’s all
Oppression
i wish i could have been oppressed
by straightened hair
then i wouldn’t have had no problems
till after emancipation when mme. walker
captured our kinks
i think it would have been hip to be oppressed
by greek letter organizations from APA to GDI
then the very earliest i would have had problems
was with the founding of howard university
or really i could dig oppression by the pig
greasy though he is he always fed me
or yeah let me bring it on down oppression
by diana ross leaving the supremes would be choice
then i wouldn’t have had no problems at all till the mafia
took over motown
and my number one choice i swear would be neo-colonialism
by bell bottom pants cause we all recognize how they have
kept us in bondage for the last four hundred years
i mean i could really dig being oppressed by Black men
cause that would mean at least someone i love
is in power
what i’m gonna say one more time is i’m
oppressed by crackers
and that’s what i’ve gotta deal
with
Toy Poem
if they put you in a jack-in-the-box poet
would you pop up poeming a positive poem on
positive Blackness
would you poet a loving rawls poem and a real
st. jacques poem before they put them in a box
could you poet beyond the greek symbol into
the need for fraternity
if they put you in a wind up toy would you spin out liberated
woman
would you spin out a feminist or feminine
women have a different reality from men
would you spin into the arms of a Black man
or the clutch of white women
could you spin into an orphan home and liberate
a Black baby
if they took our insides out would we be still
Black people or would we become play toys
for master players
there’s a reason we lose a lot it’s not our game
and we don’t know how to score
listen here
i wanna take you higher
Some Uses For Them Not Stated
the white man sent me
the EVERYTHING card
so i called the jew
to buy my house
he said: is you colored
i says: yeah! i wanna
charge my house
he said: you give me a charge
and we’ll work it out
burned EVERYTHING up
the mailman brought me
the bankamericard to guarantee
my checks
checked myself and sent it
back
then on a weak day they sent
the UNICard and i really needed
something
so i worked my juju
and turned it
into a man
Poem For Flora
when she was little
and colored and ugly with short
straightened hair
and a very pretty smile
she went to sunday school to hear
’bout nebuchadnezzar the king
of the jews
and she would listen
shadrach, meshach and abednego in the fire
and she would learn
how god was neither north
nor south east or west
with no color but all
she remembered was that
Sheba was Black and comely
and she would think
i want to be
like that
Sometimes
sometimes
when i wake up
in the morning
and see all the faces
i just can’t
breathe
Poem For My Nephew
(Brother C. B. Soul)
i wish i were
a shadow
oh wow! when they put
the light on
me i’d grow
longer and taller and BLACKER
Yeah…But…
i don’t want you to think
that i don’t know the pain
when you say sister diana don’t sing
like she used to
cause i heard d
ionne making way for just like me
and i remembered the expectation
and the little surprises her albums
used to bring
the little love notes that told someone
what i felt and the ultimate surprise
when she didn’t sing for me and my love
no more and the pain was deep
cause the pleasure had been so complete
and i can dig when you say sing
like you used to but maybe we can
remember
we don’t poet like that
no more either
Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like
so he said: you ain’t got no talent
if you didn’t have a face
you wouldn’t be nobody
and she said: god created heaven and earth
and all that’s Black within them
so he said: you ain’t really no hot shit
they tell me plenty sisters
take care better business than you
and she said: on the third day he made chitterlings
and all good things to eat
and said: “that’s good”
so he said: if the white folks hadn’t been under
yo skirt and been giving you the big play
you’d a had to come on uptown like everybody else
and she replied: then he took a big Black greasy rib
from adam and said we will call this woeman and her
name will be sapphire and she will divide into four parts
that simone may sing a song
and he said: you pretty full of yourself ain’t chu
so she replied: show me someone not full of herself
and i’ll show you a hungry person
How Do You Write A Poem?
how do you write a poem
about someone so close
to you that when you say ahhhhh
they say chuuuu
what can they ask you to put
on paper that isn’t already written
on your face
and does the paper make it
any more real
that without them
life would be not
impossible but certainly
more difficult
and why would someone need
a poem to say when i come
home if you’re not there
i search the air
for your scent
would i search any less
if i told the world
i don’t care at all
and love is so complete
that touch or not we blend
to each other the things
that matter aren’t all about
baaaanging (i can be baaaanged all
day long) but finding a spot
where i can be free
of all the physical
and emotional bullshit
and simply sit with a cup
of coffee and say to you
“i’m tired” don’t you know
those are my love words
and say to you “how was your
day” doesn’t that show
i care or say to you “we lost
a friend” and not want to share
that loss with strangers
don’t you already know
what i feel and if
you don’t maybe
i should check my feelings
And Sometimes I Sit
and sometimes i sit
down at my typewriter
and i think
not of someone
cause there isn’t anyone
to think
about and i wonder
is it worth it
I Want To Sing
i want to sing
a piercing note
lazily throwing my legs
across the moon
my voice carrying all the way
over to your pillow
i want you
i need i swear to loll
about the sun
and have it smelt me
the ionisphere carrying
my ashes all
the way over
to your pillow
i want you
Ever Want To Crawl
ever want to crawl
in someone’s arms
white out the world
in someone’s arms
and feel the world
of someone’s arms
it’s so hot in hell
if i don’t sweat
i’ll melt
My House
1972
Legacies
her grandmother called her from the playground
“yes, ma’am”
“i want chu to learn how to make rolls” said the old
woman proudly
but the little girl didn’t want
to learn how because she knew
even if she couldn’t say it that
that would mean when the old one died she would be less
dependent on her spirit so
she said
“i don’t want to know how to make no rolls”
with her lips poked out
and the old woman wiped her hands on
her apron saying “lord
these children”
and neither of them ever
said what they meant
and i guess nobody ever does
Mothers
the last time i was home
to see my mother we kissed
exchanged pleasantries
and unpleasantries pulled a warm
comforting silence around
us and read separate books
i remember the first time
i consciously saw her
we were living in a three room
apartment on burns avenue
mommy always sat in the dark
i don’t know how i knew that but she did
that night i stumbled into the kitchen
maybe because i’ve always been
a night person or perhaps because i had wet
the bed
she was sitting on a chair
the room was bathed in moonlight diffused through
those thousands of panes landlords who rented
to people with children were prone to put in windows
she may have been smoking but maybe not
her hair was three-quarters her height
which made me a strong believer in the samson myth
and very black
i’m sure i just hung there by the door
i remember thinking: what a beautiful lady
she was very deliberately waiting
perhaps for my father to come home
from his night job or maybe for a dream
that had promised to come by
“come here” she said “i’ll teach you
a poem: i see the moon
the moon sees me
god bless the moon
and god bless me”
i taught it to my son
who recited it for her
just to say we must learn
to bear the pleasures
as we have borne the pains
A Poem for Carol
(May She Always Wear Red Ribbons)
when i was very little
though it’s still true today
there were no sidewalks in lincoln heights
and the home we had on jackson street
was right next to a bus stop and a sewer
which didn’t really ever become offensive
but one day from the sewer a little kitten
with one eye gone
came crawling out
though she never really came into our yard but just
sort of hung by to watch the folk
my sister who was always softhearted but able
to act effectively started
taking milk
out to her while our father would only say
don’t bring him home and everyday
after school i would rush home to see if she was still
there and if gary had fed her but i could never
bring myself to go near her
she was so loving
and so hurt and so singularly beautiful and i knew
i had nothing to give that would
replace her one gone eye
and if i had named her which i didn’t i’m sure
i would have called her carol
A Fishy Poem
i have nine guppies
there were ten but the mother died shortly
after the birth
the father runs up and down the aquarium
looking
at first i thought i wasn’t feeding
them enough
so i increased and increased
until the aquarium was very very dirty
then i realized he was just a guppie
whose father was a goldfish
and he was only following
his nature
Winter Poem
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni Page 10