Careers
What is the life
of the old lady
standing
on the stair
print flowered
housedress
gray and orange
hair
bent
on a rail
eyes open for
jr.
bobby
jb. somebody
to come, and carry her
wish
slow
cripple woman, still does
white folks work
in the morning she gets up
creeps into a cadillac
into the florient lilac titty valleys
of blind ugliness, you think the woman loves
the younger white woman
the woman she ladles soup for
the radio she turns on when the white lady nods
she carries them in her bowed back hunched face
my grandmother worked the same
but stole things for jesus’ sake
we wore boss rages in grammer school
straight off the backs of straight up americans
used but groovy and my grandmother when she returned at night
with mason jars and hat boxes full of goods
probably asked for forgiveneess on the bus
i think the lady across from me must do the same
though she comes back in a cab, so times, it seems
have changed.
by Imamu Amiri Baraka
from To Read a Poem
by Donald Hall
Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1992
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