Afrobeat Journal Issue 2 : Spring 2011
by Opal Palmer Adisa
Can/I Will
hunger was a madness that sat in my
stomach making me think crazy thoughts
i had tried stealing to appease it but that
was dangerous madness turning me into
someone i feared yet being the oldest mama
depended on me since not even a glimpse of
papa we saw anywhere and all around us
life was crushing us like a trail of ants under
one’s foot without food laughter
left our cramped two-rooms mama vex
all the time my little brother always
sick/ his belly an empty balloon my sisters
and my skin ashy our eyes roaming like
wild animals facing off each other then
a boy like myself told me where i could
learn he said to feed myself with my own hands
i wanted to see this magic that hands could
make and now here i am with over thirty pieces
i make something even when i am not in the mood
then a feeling like happiness slips in sometimes
bringing even a smile here we help each other
we are shown how to touch wood and junk
and find their worth and make something that
is first like noise inside your head then it turns
into a song that you must sing and that’s when i
know i can and i will be more than the garbage
that surrounds me
The Renderings:
The Voices of Haiti: A Photo-Poetic Rendering
Who is Opal Palmer Adisa?
Opal Palmer Adisa, Ph. D, diverse and multi-genre, is an exceptional talent, nurtured on cane-sap and the oceanic breeze of the Caribbean. Writer of both poetry and prose, playwright/director, professor, gender specialist and cultural activist, Adisa has lectured and read her work throughout the United States, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Germany, Spain, France, England and Prague, and has performed in Italy and Bosnia. An award-winning poet and prose writer, Adisa has twenty-two titles to her credit, including the novel, It Begins With Tears (1997), that Rick Ayers proclaimed as one of the most motivational works for young adults.
