[New-Poetry] Elizabeth Alexander

[David Graham]

Ars Poetica #23: "Whassup G"

 From the Latin negrorum, meaning
“to tote,” said Richard Pryor
in an etymological mode.

Look it up in Cab Calloway’s
Hepster’s Dictionary, the giant book.
Be negro, be ‘groid, be vernacular, be.

Hey, yo, Hey bro’, Hey blood,
high five, big ups, gimme some skin,
keep it on the QT, the down low, the real side.

What it is?  What it look like?
Vernacular: Verna, a house-born slave.
Ask your mamma what it means.

Old school lyin’ and signifyin’.
That chick has a chemical deficiency:
no assatol.

                     And who knows,
on the radio, what evil lurks
in the hearts of men?  The shadow do,

quoth the brethren, and fall out,
cack-a-lacking and slapping,
high-top fade to black.

--Elizabeth Alexander.  American Sublime. Graywolf, 2005.



========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
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