turning remembrances to elegy
for nikki giovanni
the black aesthetic’s freshest female voice,a “wealthy” nikki-rosa took her place
among the shooting stars, then voiced her choice
for love; an active witness for her race.
her angry bullet poems were put to bed;
her bardic voice emerged to taunt & tease
in monologues or stanzas often read
with pauses for unspoken thoughts -- to please
by slipping off her lyric gown to bare
her naked verse, vulva soft or nipple hard;
a poet all alone & fool to care.
today she pulls her lonely close. regard
the way she lonely writes her sober truth,
so wisdom distant from her ruddy youth.
©Joseph McNair; 2009
From my understanding of this poem nikki-rose is a black woman who sing. I real like this poem i like how you compare nikki-rose voice with a gown. Very Creative!
ReplyDeleteI watched Nikki grow from a somewhat naive militant rapper to a poet of substance. There is a quality of loneliness in her work. You have captured her well.
ReplyDeletegreat poem to honor the memory of a great poet, her poems are filled with the content of day to day life.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it brotha!
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