Poem: In Langston’s Home

In Langston’s home

Harlem

You do as Langston

Did

Love the Jazz, the Blues,

Words, acts, pages and stages

In Langston’s home

Harlem

You do as Langston

Did

Love the People, their

Problems, pains and triumphs

In Langston’s home

Harlem

You do as Langston

Did

You wake asking, “What

has Harlem become

This morning?”

Each day is different!

This Manhattan morning

Your favorite coffee shop’s

a bank; and by noon

the other bank will be

another phone store—

the former phone store

a dog grooming salon

and so forth and so on…

In Langston’s home

Harlem

You do as Langston

Did

You wake asking, “What

has Harlem become

This morning?”

And you find the cute

couple with the quiet

kids are gone—disappeared—

Deported to Haiti, though they

are Jamaican and Mexican;

You find the bodega brothers

are headed back to Yemen

to be bombed by backwards

 Butchers of fossil fuel infamy…

In Langston’s home

Harlem

You do as Langston

Did

You wake one morning

 Smiling. You speak. You say,

“Good morning, Revolution…”