Poem for Jessie

your face like
summer lightning
gets caught in my voice
and i draw you up from
deep rivers
taste your face of a
thousand names
see you smile
a new season
hear your voice
a wild sea pausing in the wind



"A Poem for Jesse" by Sonia Sanchez from homegirls and handgrenades. Copyright 1984 by Sonia Sanchez. All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of Thunder's Mouth Press.