Ten Years After Umbra

we had seen
our minds reach out
touch fingertips
musics crawl in like
lazy smoke on Friday nights
taste the wine &
leave us a whiff of real road

we had seen
our fingertips recoil
our minds reel
from the impact
of our tounged knives

but then

we were naked then
and we stripped our souls
easy as the sun rose
and what went on
in that tenement prison
was something in us
bursting free like
a flash fire.

do you too now feel
the drag of too many jammed years?
Stanley’s fades into dream
and so with our touching
our hurting…

as for me
the dirt roads of Mississippi
are a long way
from anywhere

but then the sun will rise
just as easy tomorrow
over this black earth

join me there.