Split This Rock Poem of the Week - Derrick Weston Brown

Split This Rock Poem of the Week - Derrick Weston Brown Duke Ellington's You St. Lament I try to follow his eyes see where his stare lands. The Duke watches from an elevated perch. Now. Not like before when his face used to be ground level. Maybe he just watches over you, me, and the faces still left in the color corridor. Or maybe that's a worried look on his wrinkled brow as if he's dreading a gentrified tap on his shoulder reminding even the Duke to fear a rise in rent. - Derrick Weston Brown from Wisdom Teeth, used by permission Derrick Weston Brown holds an MFA in creative writing from American University. He is Poet in Residence at Busboys and Poets (14th & V). He has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University and is a graduate of the Cave Canem Summer workshop for black poets and the VONA summer workshop. His work has appeared in such literary journals as Warpland, Mythium, Ginsoko, DrumVoices, The Columbia Poetry Review, and the online journals Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Howard University's Amistad, LocusPoint,and MiPOesias. His debut collection, Wisdom Teeth, was released by Busboys and Poets Books in 2011. Brown attended both the 2008 and 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness. Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of the Week widely. We just ask you to include all of theinformation in this email, including this request. Thanks! Split This Rock www.splitthisrock.org info@splitthisrock.org 202-787-5210