smSECTION FOUR
POETRY PAGE THREE
sm
COLUMN THIRTY-FOUR, JUNE 1, 1998
(Copyright © 1998 Al Aronowitz)
[Lamont B. Steptoe is a poet/photographer/publisher born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is author of eight books of poetry, including Mad Minute, Uncle's South China Sea Blue Nightmare, and Dusty Road. Two new chapbooks entitled Common Salt and Trinkets and Beads are due to be issued by Whirlwind Press in the Spring of 1998. Steptoe is a father, a Vietnam Veteran and a founder of Whirlwind Press.
His work has also appeared in the following anthologies: Life on the Line: Poems of Healing, Brother to Brother, In Search of Color Everywhere, Aloud: Voices of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Unsettling America, Critical Perspectives on Dennis Brutus, Salutes: Selected Writings, In Defense of Mumia, Writing Between the Lines and Spirit and Flame.
Steptoe was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 1994 and received a 1995-96 Literary Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He was also a Discipline Winner in the Literature category of the 1995-96 Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship Program.
He has read his work at the Library of Congress, the National Library of Nicaragua, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, the Knitting Factory, the Schomburg Center for Black Culture, and colleges and universities throughout the United States. Steptoe is also an activist in human rights, environmental issues, and gay/bisexual issues.]
LAST HEAD WHOOPIN'
Yo,Rodney
you have taken
the last head whoopin'
Black America
is gonna stand fo'
from here on out...
we palestinians
we black vietcong,
we Apache Cherokee Chippewa Seminole
we Maroons
carving out zones of liberation
if you a John Brown
you welcome
##
* * *
HEADLINES
when
the stock market dies
like a childless scrooge
i'll be standing
on wall street downtown
watchin' the rich white folks
hang glidin'
out office windows
to unforgiving sidewalks
smokin' reefer and wincin'
everytime dey belly flop
into the ink of tomorrows
headlines ##
ORDER OF THE RED RAG
fo'
i left heaben
ALMIGHTY GOD
poured a coal shoot
of stars and comets
into
the bucket of my spirit
wrapped up
a hot piece of cornpone
in a red rag
pointed earthward
with a telescopic eye
focusing on a little yellow Black woman
in the mountainous city
of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
x-rayed her to reveal
the uterus that would become
my home
said, "Boy, git on down there
and open up your mouth!" ##
* * *
CROSS CULTURE
these African butts
on these Puerto Rican girls
bring to mind
sailing ships
slavers whips
and swords glinting
in the sun ##
* * *
2150
Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!
Can we go
and see a Blackman today?
Huh? Huh? Huh?
"Settle down, Tommy!
You know the museum
is not open on Monday!" ##
* * *
'CHILE
for LaMer
'chile
look out on the world
see
all the broken things
windows
homes
hearts
promises
that is your work 'chile
fix dem broken things
lay your hands
on the head of the world
and Heal ##
* * *
OUR DAYS
America
don't give us
happiness
we gotta buy it
in a bag
or a bottle
or go to church
on Sunday
Our days
be horror movies
with hound dogs
flaming torches
and mobs on our ass ##
* * *
TO ETHERIDGE KNIGHT: AN AFTER THOUGHT
your
money habit was huge
'cause
your dope habit was huge
'cause
your pain was huge
'cause
your heart was huge
'cause
your love was huge
'cause
your love of beauty
and truth was huge
'cause
your thirst for freedom
was huge
'cause
the oppression
the racism
and the genocide is huge
and our Resistance is huge ##
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