~John Bubbles
Happy Poetry Friday! My first poetic impulse was...dark, but I searched until I found my
I’m Fly
Glenis Redmond
For Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates
Some people got two good feet
and still don’t know what to do.
My smoothness makes the argument
for just one. My other leg be long gone
sacrificed to the cotton gin god.
They pinned my mangled mess down
to the kitchen table. Made me suffer more
under the hand of an unsterilized knife
with only a cotton bit to bare the pain.
I got up and spit out that terrible taste
of Jim Crow and pity. Spun my mama’s guilt
and worry into a dance that twists past
the neighbors’ prayer, gossip and stares...
read the rest here
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Salt City Verse has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Janice!
Want another helping of joy? I love this and these folks.
12 comments:
Wow. The poem, the video, the story. Wow.
Astounding story and poem about this resourceful man! Thank you for sharing this inspiring story, video and poem.
Wow!! Amazing!!
Definitely inspiring. I saw him dance on TV a couple of times and each time I was amazed!
Wow! Thanks for going with that fourth impulse!
I have to give another Wow for Peg Leg Bates, he’s stealing the show! Thanks for the Poem too!
Thank goodness for all of the impulses that got you to number 4! If he can do THAT with one good leg, then what's stopping me?!?!
I had never read this poem so I'm glad you posted it. Great choice! xo
This is inspiring. Thank you for sharing the story of Peg Leg Bates.
If he can "get up on his one good leg and fly" I can keep going too. (And it's okay to go dark sometimes. That's sometimes the job of art and poetry, right?)
Thank you, Karen, yes! As they say, the job of the arts is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Tabatha, what an amazing story and poem. The video shared the talented Peg Leg Bates. He must have been an interesting person. Thanks.
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