What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Does it fester like a sore?
Or does it explode?
Langston Hughes
The Love that Kills
for Marlon Riggs
I. Dream
His touch was not like any I had ever felt,
Or wanted to.
His laugh was deep, like mine, and it made
Me want to laugh even more.
His hands felt like mine, only softer
To the touch.
When he touched me I swore
The feeling would bring death.
The sweet taste of death
Rests on my lips.
I lick them to make the taste last longer.
His desire took over
And filled me up.
One of us had to explode.
II. Raisin
He introduced me to him.
He and I smiled casually.
Then we all smiled.
There was nothing casual about this meeting
All the others were.
In the peep shows.
In the showers.
In the bookstores.
In the nightclubs.
My eyes met his at a bar.
He called me the next night.
I was waiting by the phone
Hoping my desire for him
Would d rv lip like a raisin.
III. Sun
Daddy never said he loved me.
Knew even if I met him, I would never
Love him any
More
Love to thee
We sang in his church.
Daddy led the songs and we all followed.
Line hymns.
Didn't know he was my Daddy.
Though he was
Father
Of the church,
He claimed all but one.
I was the only one left.
Sitting on the pew like the last bastard
Dog
At the kennel, looking like [ was enjoying the sun warming my tongue.
IV. Sore
They cover my body
Like my niece's dot-to-dot.
Some are plum others are mud
The doctors don't want to give
False hope
Is on every corner for the highest bidder.
Sometimes that is all a simple man can ask for.
Take a shred for yourself.
Remind yourself of what you are.
Ease your pain or another's.
The shadow of death has come
On me
The last of the morning in your eyes guides me through this.
I thought I would remember more than this at the end.
Nothing comes to me except vour smell after a cold shower.
It took the sting off the soreness of vour leaving.
© Kimberly Moore