for MAYA ANGELOU

MAYA ANGELOU

I read you, Maya
for someone else’s sake
Exodus was your book
and in those day I was thoroughly Bible versed
Seems like everything I did was always for someone else’s sake
unlike you
reading your poem at the presidential swearing in
of Clinton, the one who made Monica give him a blow job
Reading the section about your care for your son
in those four volumes touched me the most
as did your talk of how only Afro American men
in their voices and talk could turn you on
Four volumes of you I read and more
of how Africa was in your hips
My friend got her Ph.D
I?
As usual, I got nothing
You, you will live forever
Rest in peace
phenomenal woman
if only for these scattered memories you gave me
as an unwilling recipient long ago
and as you read me now
from your otherworldly abode
hear in my poems all those tones
your Afro American men could bring into their voices
to turn you on
It’s there in my poems too, no joke!