Sharrif Simmons
Windows
Culture is memory
remembering
montainside minds
imagining
myth music magic
tradition
vision through shades of gray
melting faces
drums
wordsmiths
Culture is memory
redeeming stories
in cosmic mosaic
a barefoot dance through nirvana and the inferno
bitter sweet soliloquy
song birds sing symphonies
near the lakes of Ashanti
to the montains of Entoto
rivers cutting through Nazareth and resting in Ambo
Culture is memory
a wasrm quilt
weaved by giving mothers
streams filled with stepping stones
valleys of dry bones
amaretto moonbeams
bound papers
windows
the book of the dead
the salty taste of blue mists
echoes the seventh octave
the absence in the palms of my hands
words don´t fit in my mouth
Culture is memory
recorded in fire born screams
recorded in digital pieces
new world distributions
of revolutions
The wind circles tracing the steps of
black art of dutchman and slaves
of homegirls and hand grenades
the shuffle of american dreamers
houses and fields
grass covered roots and champagne drinkers
blues time soul sellers
a single thread is the remainder
Culture is memory
rhythms reaching red veins
imagining
writing is fighting
suffering
the renaissance de negritude
like the teachers in Timbuktu
Songhai universities
to Georgetown degrees
in our stories we keep dreams
behind windows that never break
the tiger´s eye
suspicious
evergreen
ever-changing
like the birth rate of mysteries
melodies made only for high priests
phat beats moving millions
like centipedes
generous griots unaffected by greed
threading the tapestry of years
allegories of tears
witch brews and remedies
warlocks with tattooed faces
the second coming of truth
forgiving sins
water walkers return
to make us pray and lead us to
the open window