LESA Holiday House New York Finding Langston by CLINE-RANSOME
For Kathy White we love hard In memory of Michael White 1984 2017 friend son artist
one NEVER really thought much about Alabama’s red dirt roads but now all I can think about is kicking up their dust I miss the hot sun on the back of my neck and how now the racket of cicadas seems like no sound at all At the end of a school day fore I had to get home and do my chores I could take my time walking just as slow as I pleased without someone pushing past and cutting their eyes like I was a stray dog come asking for scraps The school bell rings loud and I remember I’m a long way from Alabama dirt roads and slow walking I grab my satchel and make my way fast down the stairs through the school yard past block after block of the cracked sidewalks of Chicago’s South Side I step quick past Binga State Bank the Jackson Funeral Home and Saul’s Butcher Shop with rows of baloney lined up in the window like a curtain I wish it were home I was rushing to Instead I’m hurrying to get as far away as I can from Haines Junior High School I sidestep a group of loud talking women outside the Luxe Beauty Parlor and a tired old man with round shoulders Just
