Poetry in Motion, Day 8 (Yusef Komunyakaa)

This excerpt, by Yusef Komunyakaa, was inscribed for me at a New School poetry reading on March 17, 2002. Many of you may be wondering how I managed to come by so many Poetry in Motion posters. I mentioned that someone at the Poetry Society of America gave me a bunch, then I pruchased many at the New York City Transit Museum stores, in Brooklyn and at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. This one, however, came from an employee, who was friends with a city bus driver. They were switching out the posters and they were going to throw this one away, but he saved it and it got passed on to a nicer home.

from Little Man Around the House

Mama Elsie's ninety now.
She calls you whippersnapper.
When you two laugh, her rheumatism
Slips out the window like the burglar
She hears nightly. Three husbands
& an oly son dead, she says
I'll always be a daddy's girl.
Sometimes I can't get Papa's face
Outta my head. But this boy, my great-
Great-grandson, he's sugar in my coffee.

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from "My Grandmother's New York Apartment" by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from "A Bouquet" by Bei Dao (Day 2)
"Separation" by W.S. Merwin (Day 3)
"The Groundfall Pear" by Jane Hirshfield (Day 4)
"For Friendship" by Robert Creeley (Day 5)
from "Crazy Horse Speaks" by Sherman Alexie (Day 6)
"Hunger" by Billy Collins (Day 7)