Two Views of a City

Forethought: “Strange Celestial Road”

The jungle is a skyscraper

With its balconies bursting
With fate in a pleasant mood

Festooned
By flora and fauna
In the form of ebony
Moonbeams, the zodiac
& lunar sunrises sown in the skyline

Of a constellated canopy

As we speak in tones of time

Meandering
Like the Nile & the Niger, in
& out of streams
Of consciousness

Telling history
Along the way, from Eden
To where we’re inscribed today

On the wings of dreams
At the speed of night’s
Curious conjures about the cosmos

& its strange celestial road.

Afterthought:”Down Here on the Ground”

The jungle is a skyscraper

Still standing
On the 1926 bricks
Of a manifesto

That foretold the fact
Of nothing great arising
Out of assimilation or

Imitation, rooted in

The racial mountain penned by Langston
Amidst a Renaissance

Happening in Harlem
Where Africa talked
(& is still talking)

To you, down here on the asphalt, but

The message
Keeps getting lost
In translation

Amongst the urbanites, who do
Not necessarily see any grass
Or trees nor do they believe
In any American dream…

& each & every soul
Echoes the motto:
“It’ll be a good day
When we don’t have

To deal with police brutality
& equality actually extends back
Into the inner city that dwells

In me.

©2018, 21stcenturygrio