Been Here & Gone
(a love letter found thrown up in a Mississippi cottonfield)
I love you
But
I’m gone, loves all yall
—yeah, even you Lil Joe with your worthless ass—
I’m going to miss
Us laughing and joking
Wrestling with each other
Arguing about who fart the loudest
And how long church gon last next Sunday
Yeah, I know, I don’t go no mo
But that don’t mean I ain’t gonna miss it
I didn’t tell nobody I was going
Cause I didn’t want to get none of yall
Who I most care about in no trouble
Still and all, I’m sho nuff gonna miss yall
But I gots to go
I broke my hoe and left it
In two pieces shaped like an X
Down by the hanging oak
Yall know the tree I’m talking about
They ain’t gonna lynch me
Might have to kill me if they catch me
But ain’t no rope for this man’s neck
Momma, I loves you especial
You too daddy, Lord knows how you was
Strong enough to stand staying in ‘Sippi
Pa you mo man that me
I gots to go
I can’t take it
I ain’t much for words so there ain’t much mo
For me to say. Don’t take my few little mumbles
To mean there ain’t a whole bunch of feelings
Up in my heart. I know I’m repeating myself
But I loves all yall
It’s just
I got to go
Eartha Ann please don’t hate me for not staying
We talked about it before, you said
When Big Joe snuck off, Eartha you said
You could never leave your peoples behind
Like that, said specially not Big Momma
On account she 84 and it might kill her
To see you fly away… Eartha I miss your arms
And everything already
And I ain’t hardly gone good
I guess what it is, is that I can swallow missing
But I can’t stand staying
So that’s it
I loves yall
Miss yall
Been here and done gone
—kalamu ya salaam