Brownland Browsing
by Anita Jones
when you sit down you make a lap a place for something to happen cradle your plate at the potluck where they didn’t think enough to set up tables rock a baby to sleep bounce a toddler on your knee pat out the rhythm for juba-this-and-juba-that
when you stand up your lap disappears but the notion is always there
Brownland is a place only happens when black folk gather, sit down and make a collective lap a cultural meadow, designed for browsing a hereditary mecca conjured up by and cropping up amongst kin folk and friend folk as they stir up memories of their past and the past of their past
grown folk argue about who’s telling the truth That was watcha-ma-callum’s daughter, lived over in the Pear Orchard Naw, naw, you got it all wrong now, that was so-an-so’s sister’s baby girl, she went off to New York
and the children bask in the memories they can only know through stories
rub them on
like a balm
baptized in the blessings
of this
Brownland browsing
2004
8 responses to “April is National Poetry Month ~ and so ~ A Poem”
sara
April 18th, 2012 at 19:05
so cool, Anita, so cool.
Anita Jones
April 18th, 2012 at 19:17
Thanks for dropping in, Sara!
Norma Morse
April 19th, 2012 at 10:47
Anita always so witty ,funny and such a joy. Gracias
Anita Jones
April 19th, 2012 at 10:50
Mi Hermana!!! Gracias to you, too!! So glad to see you here. Come back!
lee/leigh
April 19th, 2012 at 18:38
I love the form of this piece, Anita. My fave phrase: “kin folk and friend folk”. lee/leigh
Anita Jones
April 19th, 2012 at 19:18
So glad it resonates with you, Lee.
savedbythebay
April 22nd, 2012 at 18:14
What a beautiful and thought-provoking poem. Lovely rendering of the lap as a place where so much happens. The best poems make you think about something in a new way, and that’s what this poem did for me.
Anita Jones
April 23rd, 2012 at 10:53
thanks for coming by, Shimi!