Up Sun South of Alaska: A Short African American History
for my son, Brandon Troupe
1.
slit balls hung in southern/american winds then
when drumheads were slit made mum by rum
& songs hung way down
around our ankles bleeding up sun south of alaska
swinging silhouettes picked clean to bone
by black crows
caw caw razor scars black-winged crows ripping
sunset flights of slashing razors
crows crows
blues caw caws & moans
& blues caw caws & moans
then sunsets dangled voices
crowing blues caw caws black crowing razors streak
silhouettes against a frying skillet sky
broken necks & sun-gored bodies blistered in eclipse
hung nails rope burned
into sweet black lives
rip of pendulum razors
lays open the quaking earth of flesh/moans
from blue-black dues paying women
dropping embryos into quicksand
african secret songs strapped across blood-stained blades
of glittering american razors
songs of sun/down flesh karintha dusk flesh
drug through spit/ripped
bleeding up sun south of alaska
bleeding up sun south of alaska
2.
& crows & razors & ropes & bullets
crows & razors & ropes & bullets
the shared cold legacy
& crazed pale men lassoing the sun out of the sky
& darkness then bleeding up sun south of alaska
crow wings covering the sky & our eyes & their eyes too
eclipsing the face of the sun
now an invisible clock with laser-beamed hands
that are branding rays burning our flesh
reducing over time to bone/dust
kissing stone but the nature of stone
is not moved by the tongue of heat entering
the mouth of our lives—passionate sweet touch of meaning
but still we moved through space towards grace
carrying a sphinx in one eye
a guitar in the other knowing that time is always
in the possession of the keeper
3.
so now son black
roll the pages of your american eyes back son
black son roll them back black son american
son way way back son
back before the sun ripped your flesh here
way way back sun
for the pages of your eyes carry the memory son
they are blue-black pages dues pages fingers strumming
music of oral history songs griot songs
african songs
strong black strumming fingers son
american black lives as humming caw caws
black crows transformed into eagles
no matter ripping suns son
no matter slit drums/tongues
we are here son
are sun music spirit son
caw caw blues razors
keepers of secret guitars
Copyright Credit: Quincy Troupe, "Up Sun South of Alaska: A Short African American History Song" from Transcircularities: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by Quincy Troupe. Reprinted by permission of Coffee House Press, www.coffeehousepress.org.
Source: Transcircularities: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2002)