SEA FARER-1952
I once sailed paper boats in the flooded gutters
of the boulevards of New Orleans
Where the paved streets and shaded side walkways
ended in dirt roads and dusty pathways
A flotilla made from the archives of yesterday’s news
Folded into a maritime fleet that set sail to the minor tributaries
Of the Mississippi that flowed down Hollygrove Street
The water ankle deep at the high tide of our imagination
As we launched them from our bare foot slipways into
The surging currents of the muddy waters that flowed
Over our naked brown toes anchored in the alluvial silt
Of our childhood memories
Dreaming, as we launched our fleet
We were River Boat Pilots, Pirates, Smugglers,
Swamp rats, Maroons
The tug and pull of the undertow of the water's rip tides stung our feet
With the grit, and pebbles of the Delta’s Soil.
FALL BACK
There used to be an old basket ball hoop
In the alley behind my back yard
Where the week end games
Were played among the neighborhood boys
Who had dreams of the NBA
Like Jordon & Pippin, Alcindor and McAdoo
They practiced the moves of Frazier and Hayes
But there was one player who was always
There in the key, stealing the ball
With moves as fluid as water
Whose voice rang out through the air
The ball clutched in one hand
Fall back, baby, fall back
As the boys stopped in mid step
And watched her dunk another
Basket.
Karl W. Carter, Jr. resides in Alexandria, Va. . He is the author of two books of poems, Sojourner and Other Poems (Create Space, 2010), Southern Road and Other Selected Poems, (Create Space, 2014) and the poetry broadsides; A Season in Sorrow (Broadside Press, 1972) and Three Poems (Broadside Press, 1972). His poetry appears in numerous journals, including The Broadkill Review, The Delaware Poetry Review, and This Thing Called Life, and the anthologies,
Stephen Henderson's Understanding the New Black Poetry, and Jeffery Coleman's Voices of Protest, Voices of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights Movement.