Nikky Finnney, Devine Oracle....

Dear Ms. Nikky Finney,

Although I am sincerely humbled 
by this collection of poems, your literary stature,
your well-deserved accolades, the alphabet soup of letters which proceeds and follows you name
it is to your heart that I am writing today.

Determined,
I reached out and latched hold to the next thing in front of me.
I did not know what it was
and in all truth, it did not matter.

I needed a raft,
a log,
a tire,
a light,
some warmth,
truth
anything with which could save me.

you found me...
your heart spoke

it penetrated, deep
desperate times call for desperate measures

I was at once captivated
perhaps when one has been fighting for each breath
when one has been searching for some way to live
just one more moment

the bone weary ache,
the muscles shake until your teeth rattle-
all heat has long since
abandoned you

to be found by such a powerful
graceful, measured, mature, articulate soul as yours.
this is a gift

please do not think that I feel that my petty toils of outright lunacy are in any way comparable to the legacy of racism, oppression, exploitation which is so eloquently articulated and challenged in these pieces.

but the shared humanity,
the way you speak your grandmother into your words
the love between you and your mother-
the strength, the vulnerability, the gentle humor.
It is this which speaks to the motherless child within.

It was your eyes wide open
girl standing face-to-face with lightening,
unwilling to seek safety from the storms of life
who founds me.

but it was a "fastened woman"
who resuscitated me...firmly rubbing my frozen body of the self back to life
with the rough cloth of truth...
she plucked me from the eddy

"A woman who believes she is worthy of every
thing possible. Godly. Grace. Good. Weather you
believe it or not, she has not come to Earth to play
Ring Around Your Rosie on your rolling
circus game..."

The Devine Oracle
spoke to me

"through softly clenched teeth
she will tell you, without ever looking
your way,

You do what you need to do &
So will I."

I too call that beautiful abandoned city home.
I have known the anger, the fear, the Rage!

my own childhood home was twice marked
by those white clad devils
time can never erase the smell and black soot
of the charred, acrid remains of their hate.

They traded their hoods for silk blue ties...
they gloat and grow fat
on the backs of those whom they ravish
before sucking the very marrow from their bones.

yet most of my life I have been ashamed
frozen by guilt
that I have been afforded privileges
I did not earn.

I am awed by your majesty.
I am reminded that
I too, do not have to dance.

I will be forever
in your debt