VOICES OUT OF THE FIRE poet:
black beans -- an adaptation made
when love was starved with broken hearts
and none of the food would do
--> by basiL
Times are lean,
pretty baby
in love and food.
i stood for one hour
for oscar meyer ham, rice, beans
and the possibility of cheese
while passerbys with money
stare sickened by our food bank line
blemishing their gentrification condos
when i come home,
I'll make you ham and cheese, rice and beans
wash pesticide wax off apples
for 10 minutes
after working 10 hours
between bussing 2
and it won't make the pain go away
because when you have love
hunger subsides
but when you break your lady's heart
the stomach grows
the eyes long for food
the kind of food
that says
the kind of
sorry
that fills your belly
increases your circulation
and repairs your heart
i stood in the wrong line, baby
the one that closes a
food bank
for condominiums
the one that doesn't
care what no means
times are lean,
pretty baby
and I brought home rotten food.
i know you are hungry.
i know you are hungry.
(Adapted from the poem "Black Beans" by Essex Hemphill in Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry. Plume: New York, 1992.)
basiL is a Lebanese, Syrian, American, genderQueer man constantly striving to be the change he wants in the world.
