Sharrif Simmons
She was
She was
The task began at midnight
she was from
La Republica Dominicana
he grew up in Mount Vernon
the differences followed them with broken
bottles
love was the credo that broke his mind
she was like his sister
he repeated to me
she was like my sister
I met the better halt of sweeetness
a little after 10.30
she was a friend of a friend
a pearl between two ruby glasses
her aunt called her
molasses
I only knew her as
a part of me
she touched the inside of me
where my choices lay
our impulses meant
we touched like jack rabbits
her father is from Kenya or Togo
or Cote D´Ivoire
Morocco or maybe Senegal
her mother is from Madagascar or
Martinique
Puerto Rico or Addis
she was everyone who ever came to me
people of color love the melody of plum
wine
An american passport
a citizen of vineyards and bloody valentines
my first kiss was laced with cane sugar
she was 14
I was 10
I was 11
she was 15
I pressed my hand
across her chest
we touched hearts and burnt honey kisses
her mother is from Cameroon, Georgia,
Westbury
or a Paris born Black
les ulis bas
citizens of romance and ark raids
enter her
she was a woman to me at 19
I, 17, was man to her
I kissed her on a Caribbean island
she placed her mother´s necklace on my
neck
I placed my breath between her body
she was everyone who ever came to me
people of color love the melody of plum
wine
she finally grew higher than the bushes
so I could see her face
we were raised across the street from each
other´s midnight whippings and family
reunions
I would leave her world
cross the Black Sea
hover over pyramids
drink coffee as a child in European
centerpieces
beg for sugar after tandoori spices
return
to find her grown
holding me for miles of interest
much fuller and reaching for rainbows
my stories tickled her
when she laughed
I was stripped of all my senses
my first taste of love
was my last taste of innocence
Her mother is from India or Palestine or
Brooklyn or Abidjan
her father is from Haiti or Columbia
Brazil or Tennesse
she is everyone that ever came to me
people of color love the melody of plum
wine
