Gil Scott-Heron Day

PHOTO GALLERY | HISTORICAL MARKER & MURAL REVEAL

This poem was written by James E. Cherry for the installation of the historical marker dedicated to Gil Scott Heron.

BY JAMES E. CHERRY

Just south of Jackson, a black boy learns love

in his grandmother’s arms, her hands a refuge

leading him through segregated streets.

On Cumberland Street, a black boy grows

precocious at his grandmother’s table

from bread, Blackness and words

of a poet who has known rivers, sits him

upon a rickety stool in front of a hand

me down piano for lessons on 88

broken keys until the room blossoms

into handclaps and hallelujahs. A black boy

in his bed past midnight, music from Beale

scratches against his window invites him

outside to walk among the stars. A black boy

enters an all white house of learning

on a cold January morning to teach a nation

what it should have known long before 1954.

A black boy discovers his grandmother

has taken up wings, left her body

in the only home he’d ever known. One day

he too would leave this place for good

And carry this small southern town all over the world.

Today, Jackson, Tennessee genuflects, honors

the years that forged a black boy into a black man

his image now adorns this city’s walls,

his spirit rests upon this city’s shoulders.

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James E. Cherry is the author of three collections of poetry, two novels and a collection of short fiction. A native Jacksonian, he has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and is an adjunct professor of English at the University of Memphis-Lambuth. Visit him at: jamesEcherry.com.

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