Langston won't stay in his grave

Abstract

Langston won't stay in his grave Lynne Thompson (bio) calls me rose of neon darkness, calls himselfearly blue evening, black smoke ofsound. Says we are related you and I, reminds me we are wandering in the dusk,our faces a chocolate bar, facing the nightof two moons. And though I'm a lonely little question mark, he laughs. Life is for the livingwith gypsies and sailors. 'Til the old junk manDeath plants your toes in the cool swamp mud, shake your brown feet, honey. Wander throughthis living world—get out the lunchbox of yourdreams. Stay awake all night with loving or be a woman in the doorway. Death don't ring nodoorbells or say here is that sleeping place as ifit were some noble thing. Think how thin and sharp the moon is tonight. Don't mind dyin',veiling what darkness hides. Haunt like mystery,like a naked bone in gumbo. Nod at the sun. [End Page 53] Lynne Thompson Lynne Thompson is the author of three chapbooks as well as the poetry collections Start with a Small Guitar (What Books Press, 2013) and Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007), winner of the Perugia Book Award and the Great Lakes College's New Writers Award. In 2018, Jane Hirshfield selected her manuscript, Fretwork, as the winner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. Thompson's recent work appears or is forthcoming in Ecotone, Salamander, Barrow Street, Fourth River, and Poetry, among others. Thompson is the editor of reviews and essays for the literary journal Spillway. Copyright © 2018 Middlebury College