FRESH YA SHAMBA
http://www.maverickmagazine.com/articles/230/1/FRESH-YA-SHAMBA/Page1.html
Taiyon Coleman
Taiyon Coleman is a member of Cave Canem, a national workshop for African-American poets, where she worked with Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Elizabeth Alexander, Nikky Finney, Michael Harper, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Sonia Sanchez. Her work has appeared in Ethos, Knotgrass, Sketch, Cave Canem Anthology IV and V, DrumVoices Revue, Sauti Mpya, Words Will Heal the Wound: A Celebration of Community Through Poetry CD Volume II, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, and A View from the Loft. Recently, Taiyon was a featured reader with poet Nikki Giovanni in Chicago at the Hot House, celebrating the YWCA's national day to eliminate racism. Taiyon Coleman holds a MFA from the University of Minnesota, where she worked with Alexs Pate, Patricia Hampl, and Ray Gonzalez. She also holds a Master's and a Bachelor's degree in English from Iowa State University, where she became a Ronald McNair Scholar, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.By Taiyon Coleman
Published on 10/6/2003
keeping out the sun
i travel this road
Morogoro road
many times
this last time
from Dar Es Salaam
towards Kilimanjaro
i travel this road
Morogoro road
many times
this last time
from Dar Es Salaam
towards Kilimanjaro
keeping out the sun
i travel this road
Morogoro road
many times
this last time
from Dar Es Salaam
towards Kilimanjaro
wondering which way is home
Masika rains come
winter clouds hang
on mountains
Masai and cattle
cover hills like living-room curtains
keeping me out
a place with no cassava
no pili-pili
only nazi and ndizi
old women sit in streets
shrinking plantains over coal fires
his mother's office is near here
a street
a dala-dala
one hundred t-shillings
and i am on my way
Triding over Moshi
the place where smoke rises
letting my simple heart lead
like Catholic Missionaries
a simple thing really
in the dark of Mandara's peak
she will meet her son's choice
moyo spread open
wondering if salt is there
somewhere beneath trees
and red dirt evaporating a new wife
wondering what water is left
Copyright © Taiyon Coleman, 2003. All Rights Reserved.
i travel this road
Morogoro road
many times
this last time
from Dar Es Salaam
towards Kilimanjaro
wondering which way is home
Masika rains come
winter clouds hang
on mountains
Masai and cattle
cover hills like living-room curtains
keeping me out
a place with no cassava
no pili-pili
only nazi and ndizi
old women sit in streets
shrinking plantains over coal fires
his mother's office is near here
a street
a dala-dala
one hundred t-shillings
and i am on my way
Triding over Moshi
the place where smoke rises
letting my simple heart lead
like Catholic Missionaries
a simple thing really
in the dark of Mandara's peak
she will meet her son's choice
moyo spread open
wondering if salt is there
somewhere beneath trees
and red dirt evaporating a new wife
wondering what water is left
Copyright © Taiyon Coleman, 2003. All Rights Reserved.