RonAmber is a stand-out poet. Her words stand alone and works of art but her understated delivery illuminates her work. When accompanied by a full band and the singing of Blaq Pearl magic occurs.
Here is her performance at Arriving in The Future in summer of 2012. The full poem text is below.
She Remind Me – by RonAmber Deloney
Well
Sometimes
She reminds me
Of the color purple
Of celie’s braid
Mista’s fade away
She hurts like Sophia leaving home on Christmas
Sometimes I think if I say it enough
If I close my eyes and dream it enough
I’ll open them then see love floating around her
Like the familiar face trying to surround her when she home sick
She around the corner but it just ain’t quick enough
Thin lines ain’t thick enough for her emotions
They run deep like oceans ain’t got no end
I’m sending my love to my pusherwoman friend
My sista thin
I’m praying that you home ’cause yo phone ain’t on
If I had a guitar I’d sing you a song
’cause love you remind me of a picture just painted all wrong
but I’m a love her with my bongo
beat love into her like we back in the congo
how that nina simone go
yeh
she a see line woman
got stress on the palm of her hand but that itch don’t mean what it used to
neighborhood bitch got blues too
only she’s used to hers though
numbed her thumb on rock when she was four
she dozes off that wet
dips then daydreams about how she gone get more work for she get busted
shame on those stars she trusted when she wished a long time ago
sat at the back of her momma’s old Cadillac and let her thoughts go
spotted the north star and held hope so maybe heaven would spare her older bro
she hears pusher man melodies telling her to freeze in your fallacy nigger
hustle got him so player got him so pro
got an aggravated twelve year old twelve at eighteen and only nowhere to go
cuffed so tight he couldn’t even make a fist for his afro
just another Negro fading in and out of his momma’s front door
she healed the morning pain of her house ransacked for change on her make believe piano
every now and then he claim his spot on the living room floor
take a walk around the block to see if his world grew wider
first thing pusher woman gotta find a new provider
learn to divide her time between trips to the free clinic, trips to the store and knocks on her door at one o’clock in the morning or the afternoon
she stirs her crack with a spoon
in it she make circles like full moons on her birthday
shakes her head because she never got to be Osun in a school play
naw see
she was raising her skirt the old-fashioned way
perpetrating in the breezeway with old dude named Bay-bay
now she raises her voice to confirm her status to an earth she created
girl shut up and sit down
she speaks to her birth
that fetus escaped the womb to remind her daily of what all she ain’t worth
all she owns but can’t hurt cause she don’t nurture
got tattooed virtues of a sun shining
yellow goddess running from her blue sunset
rewinding that reminder
of a chariot that didn’t stop because it couldn’t find her
if she’d just shut up and stop moving
yet she hang tough to keep proving
she’s looking towards a sadness that’s behind her
just another quick fix to find her mood
before fuck it becomes her attitude
fucking her groove up
no, fuck that
blue black and green eyes
her never-ending soul cries mercy
just a little while longer
eyes are gone see me to the prize of this lie I’m in
my situation then
her soul gone bend toward some meaning
but pusher woman dreaming
all around her folks are screaming light
but she don’t know why she gotta fight so hard
why the universe is steady pulling her card
why he brings his brown sugar cane ass through her yard everytime she’s getting over him
she’s coming two by two up concrete trails in crooked dreams
her hue seems as confused as her hip swing
sometimes she wishes she were an African dance queen
or she could smile because the grass is green
or she could sing to the next dopefiend who brings her their cold wedding ring
Sometimes
She reminds me
Of the color purple
Of Celie’s braid
Mister’s fade away
She hurts like Sophia leaving home on Christmas
Sometimes I think if I say it enough
If I close my eyes and dream it enough
I’ll open them then see love floating around her
Like the familiar face trying to surround her when she home sick
Sometimes
She reminds me
Of the color purple
Of celie’s braid
The way she fades away
She hurts like Sophia leaving home on Christmas
Sometimes I think if I say it enough
If I close my eyes and dream it enough
I’ll open them then be love floating around her
Like the familiar face trying to surround her with this love sickness
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