Tithe
This is the real money…. Nikky Finney
For Derf Reklaw
men & music & friendship
levitated by sound emanating with no coercion
rise & listen & witness
dap in a nod from pianist resolving a solo
trash-talking fingered into beatitudes on upright bass
saxophonist awakens breath haunted with anger
exhilarated percussionist collages
suppressed votes memories of sacrifice
glint of grace prophecy in action
/ this the real money /
/ pay at the door /
ephemeral threshold
/ come as you are /
seekers of transformation
brave ensemble suspended over quicksand
quilting civilization
outing ascertainment
tithing immortality
aerating our irrelevant walls
just so we can pinwheel
into the unrehearsed slow light
of an improvising band
Copyright © 2022 by Peter J. Harris. This poem appeared in SongAgain (Beyond Baroque Books, 2022). Used with permission of the author.
Peter J. Harris
Peter J. Harris is a graduate of Howard University. He is the author of various books, including Safe Arms: 20 Love & Erotic Poems (w/an Ooh Baby Baby moan) (FlowerSong Press, 2022), featuring Spanish translations by Francisco Letelier; SongAgain (Beyond Baroque Books, 2022); Bless the Ashes (Tia Chucha Press, 2014), which won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award; The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My Unalienable Right (The Black Man of Happiness Project, 2014), winner of the American Book Award; and Hand Me My Griot Clothes: The Autobiography of Junior Baby (Black Classic Press, 1993), winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for multicultural literature. Harris and his daughter, Adenike A. Harris, are contributors to Love WITH Accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press, 2019), edited by Aishah Shahidah Simmons.