BRAG
I was born singing In the rushes
like Moses
Like Muddy Waters on a
Street corner in Chicago
Like Hollin’ Wolf in dem clubs
Up North
Like Brownie McGee
with his folk guitar
I was born singing that
low life song at
Louie Jordon’s
House Party
I was born listening to the Blue
Notes of my mothers’ song
A love song sung with a singed lounge
Filled with the emptiness of Miles muted horn
I was born listening to melody of
Of Hendricks’s guitar
To the rhythm of Prince’s lyrics
To the Humming Bird wale of Lil’ Walter’s harmonica
I was born listening to the sorrowful cry of
the night train
that lonesome sound
from Coltrane’s horn
On a cold misty morning
I was born dancing like Bojangles
Just like Sammy
Just like Mista Hines
Doing the old soft shoe
That old soft shoe
Strutting like Sportin’ Beasley
Putin on the dog
Putin on the dog
Putin on the dog
Karl W. Carter, Jr. resides in Alexandria, VA. He is the author of two books of poems, Southern Road and Other Selected Poems (Create Space, 2014), and Sojourner and Other Poems (CreateSpace, 2010), and the poetry broadsides A Season in Sorrow (Broadside Press, 1972) and Three Poems (Broadside Press, 1972). His poetry has appeared in the journals Drum Voices Review, Chicken Bones, Delaware Poetry Review, Broadkill Review, and Journal of Hip Hop Studies, and the anthologies Understanding the New Black Poetry; Synergy D.C. Anthology; The Poet Upstairs: An Anthology of Washington Area Poets; Off the Record: An Anthology of Poetry By Lawyers; Freedom In My Heart: Voices From the United States National Slavery Museum; and Words of Protest, Words of Freedom, Poetry of the American Civil Rights Movement and Era.