Produced by Dennis Camire
This week’s poem is by New Jersey transplant Jim Donnelly, who co-curates The Lowry’s Lodge Reading Series and who now resides in Westbrook.
Newark
By Jim Donnelly
there was something
in the poverty of that photo that touched her
something
that reared its way through the black and white print of a thick colored woman
dancing with a thin colored man “colored”
the word when the photo was made dancing – the two of them
on the street, in one of Newark’s wards
as if the blues band that was present had made them pause
from the coarse, battered cry of their living
or the truth that resides in cracked speech (so inadequate is sound when in a word’s employ)
yes, there was something in the manner of the slight black man
trim of waist, face
made of good carving
in how gently he seemed to handle her
the heavy woman
in the flowered housedress
in their mournful sweet two-step their “ain’t nobody’s business” of a dance
hope, like the trains in the distance, fleeting
just passin’ through
Dennis Camire can be reached at dcamire@cmcc.edu
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