Be Real Black
(after Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway)
Let the brief cool of fall,
pour like milk from the mouth
of a hand-made antique,
grow pretty as a lily
worthy of your pauses.
Let all that is black, continuous,
unchanged, magical,
sprinkle like a hush,
surrender to dizziness
whenever your lips part crookedly
casting my back’s arch,
setting me straight like teeth
perfecting organs for speech.
– Melanie Henderson
A Note from Mel 
“pour like milk from the mouth
of a hand-made antique,”
This personification of an antique makes centers the whole poem making something inanimate, sensual.
This is why I featured it on my blog.
http://yesterdayspoem.blogspot.com/2009/09/line-by-line.html
I covet your comment system. If I wasn’t a Google loyalist, I would move to WordPress for this alone.
Mitch Douglas has an entire book of poetry about Donny Hathaway you ought to read, if you’re a fan. http://www.amazon.com/Cooling-Board-Long-Playing-Poem/dp/1597091405
Hi Keith,
“Cooling Board” was cool in a biographical, vignette sort of way. I’ve also heard good things about Ed Pavlic’s “Winners Have Yet to Be Announced.” It’s next on my unwritten to-read list…