Chrome Valley


 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title
 Contents
 HOMER, LOUISIANA
 THE BLK(EST) NIGHT 1993
 REDBONE DANCES
 JAUNDICE
 REAL FRIENDS
 REDBONE ON FIGHTING
 CUL DE SAC FOLKLORE
 REDBONE PLAYS BONES
 SLINK FEEL GOOD
 LOST & FOUND
 REDBONE & BOX WINE
 BL_ _K GIRL
 CUTLASS
 PLAY BROTHER
 REDBONE WINS ROUND 1
 BEST TIME III
 WHEN 12 PLAY WAS ON REPEAT
 BEST TIME VI
 VAST
 ACID
 BEST TIME X
 TRIVIA
 THE HEIST
 1981
 1992
 CUL DE SAC PLOT
 THE RINK
 BETTY SEZ
 CHURCH HEAT
 ORANGE RINDS
 SPINDLE GREASE
 REDBONE, REDBONE HAVE YOU HEARD?
 BLKEST NIGHT
 MUDDY WATERS
 GOODNIGHT, MOON
 WHAT WE LOST IN THE FIRE
 LACQUER
 PITEOUSNESS
 RITA CROSS REDBONE
 HIJACK
 BL_CK GIRL
 REDBONE SHAMES THE DEVIL
 GREEN EARTH
 ODE TO FEET
 LOVE SONG
 WORKING TITLE
 BECAUSE . . . 
 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE BROKEN
 IF LOVE IS FOR THE FISHES
 PICKPOCKET
 PAST BEFORE
 STUMBLE LOVELY
 BEFORE, A PALINDROME
 GUN SHY
 BLKEST NIGHT IS A BLK GIRL
 PRE-RECORDED
 REDBONE & AL GREEN
 THE BIG HOUSE
 REDBONE IN GREEK
 REDBONE ON SNAPPING PEAS
 BAM BE LIKE . . . 
 BAM BEHIND BARS AFTER BEATING A MAN WITH A BASEBALL BAT
 REDBONE REFLECTION
 DEAD VALLEY
 LITTLE DEATHS
 MAMA’S SUGAR
 BONE GARDEN
 A CHORUS OF HANDS
 BREAKING ALPHA ALMIGHTY
 BABY MAMA LAMENT
 MONSOON
 MUSING(S)
 CHROME HAUNT
 BAM BE LIKE . . . 
 REDBONE IN GOD’S IMAGE
 MY MOTHER, REDBONE
 REDBONE & A STRETCH OF HIGHWAY
 KEROSENE LITANY
 IF WE PRAISE
 BIRTH RITE
 CROWNED
 THE CYCLE
 DEAR DAUGHTER
 THIS
 Acknowledgments
 Also by Joy Harjo
 Copyright
 
 
 
 
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 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHROME VALLEY
 
 POEMS
 MAHOGANY L. BROWNE
 
 
 
 
 
 TO ELSIE JEAN, MY FOREVER MATRIARCH
 
 
 
 CONTENTS
 
 
 HOMER, LOUISIANA
 THE BLK(EST) NIGHT 1993
 REDBONE DANCES
 JAUNDICE
 REAL FRIENDS
 REDBONE ON FIGHTING
 CUL DE SAC FOLKLORE
 REDBONE PLAYS BONES
 SLINK FEEL GOOD
 LOST & FOUND
 REDBONE & BOX WINE
 BL_ _K GIRL
 CUTLASS
 PLAY BROTHER
 REDBONE WINS ROUND 1
 BEST TIME III
 WHEN 12 PLAY WAS ON REPEAT
 
 BEST TIME VI
 VAST
 ACID
 BEST TIME X
 TRIVIA
 THE HEIST
 1981
 1992
 CUL DE SAC PLOT
 THE RINK
 BETTY SEZ
 CHURCH HEAT
 ORANGE RINDS
 SPINDLE GREASE
 REDBONE, REDBONE HAVE YOU HEARD?
 BLKEST NIGHT
 MUDDY WATERS
 GOODNIGHT, MOON
 WHAT WE LOST IN THE FIRE
 LACQUER
 PITEOUSNESS
 RITA CROSS REDBONE
 HIJACK
 BL_CK GIRL
 REDBONE SHAMES THE DEVIL
 GREEN EARTH
 ODE TO FEET
 LOVE SONG
 
 WORKING TITLE
 BECAUSE . . . 
 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE BROKEN
 IF LOVE IS FOR THE FISHES
 PICKPOCKET
 PAST BEFORE
 STUMBLE LOVELY
 BEFORE, A PALINDROME
 GUN SHY
 BLKEST NIGHT IS A BLK GIRL
 PRE-RECORDED
 REDBONE & AL GREEN
 THE BIG HOUSE
 REDBONE IN GREEK
 REDBONE ON SNAPPING PEAS
 BAM BE LIKE . . . 
 BAM BEHIND BARS AFTER BEATING A MAN WITH A BASEBALL BAT
 REDBONE REFLECTION
 DEAD VALLEY
 LITTLE DEATHS
 MAMA’S SUGAR
 BONE GARDEN
 A CHORUS OF HANDS
 BREAKING ALPHA ALMIGHTY
 BABY MAMA LAMENT
 MONSOON
 MUSING(S)
 
 CHROME HAUNT
 BAM BE LIKE . . . 
 REDBONE IN GOD’S IMAGE
 MY MOTHER, REDBONE
 REDBONE & A STRETCH OF HIGHWAY
 KEROSENE LITANY
 IF WE PRAISE
 BIRTH RITE
 CROWNED
 THE CYCLE
 DEAR DAUGHTER
 THIS
 Acknowledgments
 
 
 
 
 CHROME VALLEY
 
 
 
 
 
 HOMER, LOUISIANA
 i.
 When you are a Black writer in America:
 it gets harder to ignore the bodies.
 To step over the nameless namesakes
 and point apparatus to the sun.
 They say writing about the almost dead only gets harder.
 My grandma sighs “pray for them baby.”
 I think “God! Is this the fight?
 To be Black and beautiful and breathing?”
 ii.
 When I say freedom
 What I mean is American flag
 knotted in the spine & ripped from the root
 When I say root
 What I mean is Detroit Red
 What I mean is Malcolm X
 What I mean is Barack Obama
 What I mean is history repeating itself
 What I mean is history rewriting itself
 What I mean is apple pie
 with a slave owner on the side
 iii.
 you know you Black
 when no one wants to talk
 about how your blk hair kink
 up into clean circles
 how they white ass bathroom floor
 don’t hide the coiled curls
 like ya mama’s tan tiles do
 so you crawl on all fours
 with toilet paper tap water damp around your knuckles
 so no one notices
 that you notice
 that your kitchen is as nappy
 as they told you it was
 & here you be
 black ass grown ass woman
 on all fours
 who stay saying her afro is beautiful
 who been saying she love her black
 who keep saying she ain’t
 afraid
 iv.
 When I say root
 What I mean is Fannie Lou Hamer
 What I mean is size 10 & no laces
 What I mean is history repeating itself
 What I mean is history rewriting itself
 What I mean is apple pie
 with a prison warden on the side
 When I say side
 What I mean is handcuffed & kicked,
 stripped & water hosed,
 bare & ass & thighs debated on its firm
 during