Naomi: (from the short film, “Naomi in the okra!”)

Abstract

Naomi(from the short film, “Naomi in the okra!”) Frank X Walker (bio) my eyes smile first but my first thought is not black-eyed susans or peas but sun flower sweet and brown with rows and rows of corn in her hair a flowering sweet brown sun captured on film planting herself in soil as black as we not black-eyed susans or peas or anything short and praying on the ground but a sweet brown sunflower as long as her daddy’s smile and taller still ah, this is how they grow mermaids in Mississippi, in the middle of a field surrounded by okra [End Page 17] Frank X Walker Frank X Walker coined the term, “Affrilachian” to refer to Appalachian African-Americans and founded Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture. He is the author of five poetry collections and serves the University of Kentucky as an Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Director of the African American and African Studies Program. Copyright © 2011 Berea College