Legacy

By Amiri Baraka b. 1934 Amiri Baraka

(For Blues People)

In the south, sleeping against

the drugstore, growling under

the trucks and stoves, stumbling

through and over the cluttered eyes

of early mysterious night. Frowning

drunk waving moving a hand or lash.

Dancing kneeling reaching out, letting

a hand rest in shadows. Squatting

to drink or pee. Stretching to climb

pulling themselves onto horses near

where there was sea (the old songs

lead you to believe). Riding out

from this town, to another, where

it is also black. Down a road

where people are asleep. Towards

the moon or the shadows of houses.

Towards the songs’ pretended sea.

Amiri Baraka, “Legacy” from Black Magic (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1969). Copyright © 1969 by Amiri Baraka. Reprinted with the permission of Sll/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.

Source: Black Magic (1969)

Biography

Amiri Baraka was born LeRoi Jones in 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University and Howard University, spent three years in the U.S. Air Force, and returned to New York City to attend Columbia University and the New School for Social Research. Baraka has become most known for his strident social criticism, often writing in an incendiary style that has made it difficult for some audiences and critics to respond . . .

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