Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!
The Knuckleball
Every black man should be born
with a big mitt.
How else can one catch the world
that flutters in unpredictable ways.
The sound of a knuckleball
is Parker on his horn.
When Ella scats don't try
to copy her.
Oriole Hoyt Wilhelm in 1958 threw
a no-hitter against the Yankees.
It was like Douglass being Lincoln
for a day. It's impossible to dance
to slavery anymore. It ended with
the hangman's swing.
The knuckleball is Bebop.
Don't be baffled by its strange beauty.
Just keep hitting it with your ears.
Written by E. Ethelbert Miller
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