ESTHER ROLLE
(in loving memory of the pioneering black actress)

a poem by Kola Boof

When you die...come back to life
So we can laugh and cry and curse the living!
O!  I want to curse anything.
Drab concrete sky leaving me with too many songs.
Sadness leaves, because
I forget the words.
The words are so many, I just wrinkle
up and laugh and squeeze
my hurting hands.

I remember being young and frisky.
I remember being a creamy hot thing.
I remember the lemony days and hasty dreamy nights
that snuck away with the words.
Stole away.

The one song I remember, the one I loved
went:

"when you die...come back to life."

______________
*Taken from "NILE RIVER WOMAN: The Very First Poems by Kola
Boof".

Look for Kola Boof's new poetry collection, "EGYPTIAN-SUDANESE-AMERICAN:
NEW POEMS BY KOLA BOOF" in November 2007.