For Sherley Ann Williams
Aug 25, 1944--July 6, 1999
We sat in Central Park, NYC winter '97
70 degrees in February
we met the night before after 17 years of silence
high school lovers should always be friends
memory of precious times
what a blessing sitting in Central Park
talk of family friends poets poems
you know Ntozake was
Baraka has
Skip Gates got a
about us nothing
we didn't go there
after 17 years of silence
we sat still
II
My homegirl from the hood Fresno
projects cotton grape fields
Fink White playground
Columbia Elementary
Edison High
drama club honor society
full of passion with her love
screaming scratching
aborted child at my request
to my eternal regret
Mama said that's the girl you ought to marry
she's smart!
she never married
was blue about this
said a bad relationship was better than no relationship
poet
critic
novelist
professor
nobody better
two poets in the park
now there is only one
peace my sister my darling.
--Marvin X
7/15/99
from Land of My Daughters, poems, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2005.
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