Long Poems About Gwendolyn Brooks

After Gwendolyn Brooks  
      
There it was—      
after twelve hours of ocean      
and incandescent clouds:      
sewn patchwork of color      
beyond the portal      
of a plane's window      
     
Momentarily gone      
—American melancholy      
hovering so far from home      
     
I was six—      
a whimper amid adult dialogue;      
my teacup tongue, rattling  
against saucer lips—      
unheard      
     
Gaiety—      
my father, statuesque       ...