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Don Chu Go

 

Don chu go talkin bout the sunrise

purty pinky sunrise

as if they ain't all kinda people

suffrin evry corner a this world.

 

Remember them you hear?

I don wan no purty dove

sittin on a cedar poem

till all yer ancestors an mine

are walkin free.  We got work to do.

Hear me?

No sirree girl don chu go

hangin up this phone!

 

I know yer type.

You think it's okay

ta cuddle yer sorrow

hide behinda bush

lookit little stones

lemme find a shiny one!

Cracks ina ground

like they got some kinda wisdom

well i do think they know morin

most of us but that

aint no way to spend a day.

Use yer voice!

Cry out fer pain, injustice,

come on lazy girl

don't be satisfied with dillydallydaisy poems

you don pay nuf attention to rough stuff.

People are dyin!  I want you to shout!

Thats what the owl an I talked about this morning

in Brackenridge Park.

 

Now I'm gonna get off

let you go about yer business

but goddam it better be real business

or you gonna hear it

from yer ol buddy.

 

                                        (in memory, Maury Maverick Jr.)

 

Naomi Shihab Nye