i have my mother's hands
(featuring composer/guitarist Frank Edele)
though cancer claimed
my mother's body decades ago
inola's reincarnation remains within me
a deeply treasured and unerring auditor—
an inquisitive, music loving child
with eyes wide bright and earth brown
whose trusting reach upthrusting
to clasp a helping man's hand
unclenches the maleness of my fist
and continually causes my essence
to cup the strength of masculine fingers
into the soft of a flesh spoon
emulating and saluting the feminine
gesture of giving unconditionally
—kalamu ya salaam