Kef 12

By Henry Dumas 1934–1968 Henry Dumas

Take up the blood from the grass, sun.

Take it up.

These people do not thirst for it.

Take up the insect children that play in

the grass, sun.

Take them away.

These people are sick of them.

Take down the long slender reeds, sun.

Cut them down.

These people cannot make flutes any longer.

Now sun, come closer to the earth!

Even closer than that.

Closer. Now, sun.

Take away the shape from the metal, sun.

They are like stone, these people.

Now make them lava.

Henry Dumas, “Kef 12” from The Selected Poetry of Henry Dumas, published by Thunder's Mouth Press. Copyright © 1968-2010 by Loretta Dumas and Eugene B. Redmond. Used by permission of the Hentry Dumas Estate, Eugene B. Redmond, Executor.

Source: The Selected Poetry of Henry Dumas (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1989)

Biography

Fiction writer and poet Henry Dumas was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas, but moved to Harlem when he was 10. He attended City College in New York before joining the Air Force; he was stationed in San Antonio, Texas, and on the Arabian Peninsula. Dumas attended Rutgers University and worked for a year at IBM, then left the company to teach and direct language workshops at Southern Illinois University. He and his wife, Loretta . . .

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