What do I have but song, husband, and Merlina Rea, the Redeemer deserted me, forsook my daddy before discarding my mama, because He could not tolerate, dark man dragged behind red International farm truck, truck bed chastiser-filled, because He could not make room, full of white folks’ aversion to dark shreds left to vulture and rodent, a dark mass of entangled muscle and road debris, He would not see, Mama sorrowing until her soul bowed out, He did not hear, because her daddy deserted her when her mama bawled and bled, bled and begged him to take the newborn where milk and clean bed are ready, where breast and song welcome the baby, He is impassive, so my aunt accepts me, does her best until Greenwood is hollowed and burned as if a cancer on Tulsa, then leaves me with a cousin, does his b
