Faithful (for charles everick)

in 1970 on this day
a blackboy was born
almost two years later I came
his first permanent gift
an introspective boy-toy
making beats on high chairs
and throwing rattles
at Mr. Rodgers

he'd always pick up
after me
bring whatever i threw
back to me
let me shake and release again
and there were few words
just a double-chin grin
and his joy
at spoiling me
maybe testing his hypothesis

these first experiments
me believing that all good things return
until it was time for him to teach
that few things are forever
so learning early
that many things we love
are unrequited
that just as you begin to trust them
like next breaths
these routines
like habits or heartstrings
almost always break

but some never do
some are special like that
faithful

30 some-odd years later
we exchange as few words
as we did back in the day
me measured by months
and him at two

at 33 and 35
we don't play anymore
I hardly see him
except for in dreams or prayers
yet with no less endearment
than the day I first called him
"brah"
or gave him dimes for nickles
because he said they were smaller
there are things I want
to shake and toss
have him bring them back to me:

memories
of our black boyhood
bicycle gangs and hookey
football and jheri curls
buzzer beaters
fights with niggas
or crushes on girls
adolescent innocence
wrestles with the holy ghost
and there are all those things
I never told him
that i always wanted to

so on this his 35th birthday
i find courage
to shake and toss
news of a new love
hopes of the home I hope to build
evidence of my litany for survival
and all the strength I've gained
from the weak moments

he has, too,
lived through bridges
breaking under pressure
and I am broke
so today I wish for him
a quarterback hail mary
he can catch
run back to me
redeem my faith
that there must be someone
out there
as faithful as he
the first boy
I probably ever loved.
______________________

Happy Birthday Brah!

Marvin K. White's "Dream Book on Water"

because sometimes I'm at a loss of words to describe how I feel about certain things... like the array of emotions, wrongs, bravery, hopes that surround our peoples down in Naw'leans right about now.... i can turn to other word magicians who say it perhaps mo' beautifully than I could have imagined. I'm proud to know Marvin and am one of his students. Enjoy... and remember that as much as they need our charity, they need our belief, our faith, our conviction.


Dream Book on Water
__________________________

Water - if flowing water, such as a river or stream, increased romance.
If water is murky, one is unsure of one's own feelings.

Let us shed tears that celebrate life. Let us do something brave. Let
us do something kind. Let somebody see it. Let our love and our
bravery and our kindness be an island for some soaked southern soul to rest
on. Let our acts impact the universe. Lets remind moon that it can
pull back waters. Ain't nobody powerless in this.

Even if all we got is words.

Even if all we got are bodies which are as much water as the flood.

Even if all we got are prayers.

I hope somebody, somewhere in the South, my recent past, the birth and
burial place of my people, the Whites, the Blows, the Fords, the
Draughns, the Browns, the Broussards, the Sherrills, can feel me comforting
them.


Marvin K. White
Poet, Artist and Arts Organizer
Last Rights(2004 Redbone Press)
Nothin' Ugly Fly(2004 Redbone Press)
www.marvinkwhite.com