SQN - Sine Qua Non - Issue 1 - Journal - Page 109
SINE QUA NON
In the limping afternoon,
looking off down the long street to nowhere,
love’s another departure.
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
Looking off down the long street to nowhere,
two who have lived their day.
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness,
the Alwayswonderful of this world?
Two who have lived their day.
There is this We:
the Alwayswonderful of this world,
to laugh or fail, diffident, wonder-starred.
There is this We:
right linen and right wool, watching us,
laughing or failing, diffident, wonder-starred,
oak-eyed mother, gobbling mother-eye.
A Gwendolyn Brooks ekocento pantoum
Source poems:
“An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire;” “Boy Breaking Glass;” “Jessie Mitchell’s Mother;” “The
Lovers of the Poor;” “Primer for Blacks;” “of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery;”
“The Sermon on the Warpland;” “The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith;” “Young Afrikans;” “The Ballad of
Rudolph Reed;” “The Children of the Poor;” “Riot;” “A Sunset of the City;” “the mother;” “The Bean
Eaters;” “Gay Chaps at the Bar;” “The Life of Lincoln West;” “the rites for Cousin Vit;” “Still Do I Keep
My Look, My Identity…;” “The Third Sermon on the Warpland;” “when you have forgotten Sunday:
the love story;” “Henry Rago;” “A Light and Diplomatic Bird;” “To Be in Love;” “The Egg Boiler;” “The
Sonnet-Ballad;” “Black Love;” “The Blackstone Rangers;” “To Prisoners”
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