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Upcoming Events

• Dancing on the Shore:

  Poems from MIGRATION LETTERS by M. Nzadi Keita

  April 3, 5:30 - 7:00

  Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Phila. PA

• Celebrating Poetry Month:

  M. Nzadi Keita

  & Nathalie Anderson

  April 17, 6:30 – 7:30

  Main Point Books,

  116 No. Wayne Ave, Wayne, PA

• Gaithersburg Book Festival

  May 17, 10 – 6, Bohrer Park, 506 S. Frederick Ave.,

  Gaithersburg, MD

NEW BOOK NEWS:  MIGRATION LETTERS GETS THE YES

• Short-listed for the Tenth Gate Prize from Word Works Press

• Forthcoming in 2023 from Beacon Press

Great Migration Pentimento, #3

When your mother waved you off to college, she shrunk back

to Saturday nights in Atlantic City.  Chicken Bone

Beach, heels in hand. Traveling to her sisters’

in Chester, the Bronx. Whooping at Woodside

Park.  Peg Leg Bates’s place, upstate

New York.  Southside Chicago,

maid-of-honoring her best girl.  Uniformed

in Margate, small white hands, right

and left, clutching hers.  Troop train

from Georgia, 1943. So few places summed

her up, classroom to bus doors

to vacuum.  No curlicued claim to upward

bound credits. No classes.  No dates

with Memphis lawyers. Her diploma pointed

outward: shorthand—maybe. Receptionist

absolutely — “just not quite right” for her.

Understudy for downtown retail, she sparkled

counters overmuch. Jitterbugged

up to the Sabbath day of praise. 

Circulator of the borrowed bassinet,

snowsuit, sandbox. Cupfuls

of Clorox.  Spotty clerical work. Never

permitted to shine without grope

or glare. Your witness. Her rally: that smile,

enough to swing Avon. Make food.

Make room.  Mark homework.