Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!

The Peacock Song


They don't like to see you with
yo tail draggin low so I
try to hold mines up high. No
one want to know where you go-
in til after you been and
even though I told em ain't
nobody heard. How a peacock
gon speak: I got no tongue.

                                         Here
I come with my pigeon-toed
strut and my head is up for
balance and so they can look
in my eyes. See that sty? that
was from beggin; that callus
come from brushin against all
the some ones I met on my
way to been ... or is it, am?
I never do know. But I
was trying to make em feel
that I need a little heart
rubbin, soul scrubbin; this is
real. But if I'm a peacock
my feathers's'posed to cover
all hurts and if you want to
stay one then you got to keep
that tail from draggin so mines
is always held up sky high.

Written by Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999)

<----> SEND THIS POEM TO A FRIEND! <---->

Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge