back to Poetry/Prose

I need to get me some ’that religion
Brad Rice
 
I need to get me some ’that religion,
Some ’that deep down stuff come up out of Africa
Cross the great salt water.
Sparkles ebony so holy like brother stars and
The song of wind and grass and the ancient
Sacred heartbeat of a djembe drum.
Damn near didn’t hear ’bout it ’ceptin’
I do have ears;
Can’t pretend not to hear them scythes and slave voices
Still come bubblin’ out the fields down South
Like a broken moan that sings the
Morning mist of sorrow on the land.
 
I need to get me some ’that religion,
’Cause when the sorrow sends me
Tumbling down through Pennsylvania and
I take up great mouthfuls of the earth;
Mull it like tobacco, cheek and gum,
I can taste the Baptismal Blood of Gettysburg
Bursted through the levee mingled black and white
Through the rushes and the reeds like a plague to
Bring a Red Sea out of Israel and Egypt.
But after the fog of death had settled in
Among the dying I also remember a certain Abraham Moses
Come walk out his front porch one day and
Cleave a little path between the graves
Like a wanderer on the mountain,
Speakin’ somethin’ hallowed on his lips that was
Confused and put asunder by
The beat of the marching drum.
 
 
I need to get me some ’that religion,
Get some ’that smoke caught in you throat and
Taste the blackness of black skin.
Watch smoke swirl out of sleeping Jim Birmingham Crow
Ain’t gonna let nobodyknows the trouble I
Seen it Detroit race riot rise over
My head I see freedom in the
Air black burnt sacrifice on Los Angeles altar
Spreading in the firmament like blood I saw it rise (But
so so soft as if a Dream I also saw an Angel of the Lord singing a Joyful noise on the mountaintop of disappointment, singing down Memphis way, singing like a ghost between the living and the dead) up
Rise up, come out We shall overcomewade in the
Water below the tracks, the smoke billows thick from a far-off
Engine, and I hear the Freedom Gospel Train’s a-
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
                        -comin’ comin’ comin’ by the hour.
 
Ye’suh, that’s some ’the religion
I need to hurry up gettin’ after.