A Swarm of Words Inside His Belly

Blue Dementia


In the days when a man
would hold a swarm of words
inside his belly, nestled
against his spleen, singing.

In the days of nightriders
when life tongued a reed
till blues & sorrow songs
called out of the deep night:
Another man done gone.
Another man done gone.

In the days when one could lose oneself
all up inside love that way,
& then moan on the bone
till the gods cry out in someone's sleep.

Today,
already I've seen three dark-skinned men
discussing the weather with demons
& angels, gazing up at the clouds
& squinting down into iron grates
along the fast streets of luminous encounters.
I double-check my reflection in plate glass
& wonder, Am I passing another
Lucky Thompson or Marion Brown
cornered by a blue dementia,
another dark-skinned man
who woke up dreaming one morning
& then walked out of himself
dreaming? Did this one dare
to step on a crack in the sidewalk,
to turn a midnight corner & never come back
whole, or did he try to stare down a look
that shoved a blade into his heart?
I mean, I also know something
about nightriders & catgut. Yeah,
Honey, I know something about talking with ghosts.

- Yusef Komunyakaa, from the Spring 2005 issue of Ploughshares.

Odetta - Another man done gone (mp3), from Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues

Johnny Cash (with Anita Carter) - Another man done gone (mp3), from Blood, Sweat and Tears