Goodbye Maya Angelou
Clinton's Inauguration 1993
You were so beautiful, Maya
Standing in front of the
President and the First Lady
I didn’t really understand
Your Pulse Of Morning
Presidential inauguration poem
I kind of got lost in the dinosaur theme
Poems about Mastodons usually
Don’t instantly inspire Black dreams
But those Harvard and Yale Bullies
came out the next day
To criticize your Iambic feet
Said your syllables are too short
Too forced or didn't repeat
But in the South
We were taught to
protect our Grandmothers
And help them cross the street
And I wish you had just read
And Still I Rise
Would have loved to see
The look in Bill Clinton’s eyes
Your Calling Of Names, poem
That would have given Colin’s blood pressure
A Rise
Dick Cheney would have just laughed
Or if you had read your poem:
Chugga chugga Chigga
Get me one figga
I would have laughed
As Hillary’s eyes got bigger
And part of me was hoping
For a And Still I Rise Part II
But since you are gone now
The Dinosaur poem will do
It really was a beautiful poem
I was never captured by your
Autobiographies
Always struggled with
Caged Bird themes
I thought it was more about women
Less about Black dreams
But I did like the movie
And when it is all over
White poets will say
You were not as graceful as Langston
Or Gwen or Rita
And Black poets will say
You were never as angry as Nikki or Sonya
Or as political as Baraka
And the legacy people will scramble
Trying to find a place in History
For the sweet dancing Black woman
From Stamps, Arkansas
That stole our hearts
And sold a hundred zillion books
Took pictures with Malcolm and Martin
So I write this poem to plea their pardon
And of course they’ll name
A few inner city schools after you
There will be a Maya avenue
In at least thirty Black neighborhoods
This will be good
And I’m sure there will be
a Maya Angelou library
On a Martin Luther King Boulevard
Near a Malcolm X Cemetery somewhere
Where people will gather and stare
And on your birthday politicians
Will congregate and celebrate
Just like they do for Martin Luther King
But they still won’t get
Why the caged bird sings
Sixty honorary doctorate degrees
And both Harvard and Yale never saw you
They say your work is lacking in invention
And in the company of Riding, Bishop
And Edna Saint Vincent
Your sweet name will never be mentioned
And for the rest of my life
I’ll have to wonder
How the Pulitzer Prize
evaded you for more than
a half a century
And ten years from now
I will be working in my office
And a bird will land on my window sill
With wings of yellow, green and blue
And if it smiles and dances
And and sings like its free
Than I will know its you
Goodbye Maya
No more cages for you...
Copyright © Michael Ellis | Year Posted 2021
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