"A Poet's Life," A Poetry Post

For Ms. Angelou

Ms. Missy,
I wanna thank you for
inviting the whole world to the
front porch of your life

For letting us sit down in the
shade of your sufferings and
drink from the bittersweet lemonade of
your life lessons

For peeling off the bandages and
letting your fresh and putrid wounds
bleed in the public where
we could learn
healing

For talking to women like WOMEN about
women's things where
men could see but not
touch us directly

For drawing that line between
touchable and untouchable for
many young girls

For opening your mouth and
saying hard things when
hard things must be said

For seasoning your words with
honey for the sake of
demonstration

For being so
unapologetically
Black, Black, Black
feminine, an engine of
crown-wearing pride among the
dark-dark, brown and light

For respecting and providing
circumspection for
all creeds, colors and nations

Thanks, Ms., for your
lyrical immortality.

Now, shine and rise on the
other side.

Don't worry for us down here.

We have our rocking chairs.
We have our porches.
We have our lemonades and
have trashed our soiled band-aids.

We have filled ourselves up with your
poetic life.

That you have gone on to rest
is fair. It is just. It is right.

That you have finally rested
is right.

-T. D. James-Moss