(For Angelyn Ogdoc 2008 – 2010)
By Truth Thomas
In everything give thanks. How is this found?
When death drips daily from tsetse flies’ lips
and rusty teeth of rats make gnawing ground
of cribs, where should our gratitude be lit?
What is the good in a cockroach? Tell us.
Or chinches crashing capillary doors?
Or lice moving typhus like cans of nuts
on checkout counters at grocery stores?
A stinkbug is not a rose. A meal pried
from garbage jaws is not a Buckingham
Palace tea. A parachute dropping smiles
is not a child thrown from a grandma’s hands—
murder’s hands—to hands of concrete walkway.
Fifty feet she fell. Which foot should we praise?
_____________
Truth Thomas is a singer, songwriter, and poet, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, raised in Washington, DC. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Party of Black (Flipped Eye/Mouthmark Press, 2006), A Day of Presence (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2008), and Bottle of Life (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2010). His fourth book, Speak Water, is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2011. He serves on editorial boards of both the Tidal Basin Review, and the Little Patuxent Review. Some of his work has appeared in: The Progressive, Quiddity Literary Journal, and The 100 Best African American Poems (edited by Nikki Giovanni).
Friday, July 1st, 2011 7:55 am
Categories: Issue 5.1, Poetry
