Poem of the Week: Quraysh Ali Lansana

Photo by: Glodean Champion

         

   

body shop      

 

i've heard tell of a hustle

in brooklyn where clever folks

throw themselves in front of cars

lurching down eastern parkway

not the beat-up green mini-vans

or duct tape toyotas of poets, not

impalas bleeding chrome

spinning disposable testosterone

but mid to high end machines

of certain insurance booty, drivers

in the 30 to 50 year range, same

demographic as oprah's audience

i suppose there is a right and wrong

approach to this science, the angles

of minimal damage to consider, side

to bumper, back to door, head up

unless her poodle is well groomed.

few have retired, i would speculate

but work less now that checks

lack bounce and the mailman walks briskly

it must be the eyes, wide and clean

that distinguish these impact alvin aileys

from ordinary jaywalkers

at utica i marvel at the desperate genius

the split-second calculus, the risks and gains

of such occupation, before descent

into the dark anonymity of the 4 train

-Quraysh Ali Lansana        

Used by permission.

From mystic turf, forthcoming from Willow Books, October 2012.    

  

Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of five poetry books, three textbooks, a children's book, editor of eight anthologies, and coauthor of a book of pedagogy. He is Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at Chicago State University, where he served as Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing from 2002-2011. Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community (with Georgia A. Popoff) was published in March 2011 by Teachers & Writers Collaborative and was a 2012 NAACP Image Award nominee. mystic turf, a collection of poems, will be released in October 2012 by Willow Books.

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