"Trane" by Kamau Brathwaite
Propped against the crowded barhe pours into the curved and silver hornhis old unhappy longing for a home
the dancers twist and turnhe leans and wishes he could burnhis memories to ashes like some old notorious emperor
of rome. but no stars blazed across the sky when he was bornno wise men found his hovel; this crowded barwhere dancers twist and turn,
holds all the fame and recognition he will ever earnon earth or heaven. he leans against the barand pours his old unhappy longing in the saxophone
Propped against the crowded barhe pours into the curved and silver hornhis old unhappy longing for a home
the dancers twist and turnhe leans and wishes he could burnhis memories to ashes like some old notorious emperor
of rome. but no stars blazed across the sky when he was bornno wise men found his hovel; this crowded barwhere dancers twist and turn,
holds all the fame and recognition he will ever earnon earth or heaven. he leans against the barand pours his old unhappy longing in the saxophone
Note: Edward Kamau Brathwaite (born on Barbados in 1930) is a major voice in poetry and literature from the Caribbean. After his education at Cambridge in the early 1950s, he spent time in Ghana before returning to St. Lucia and then Barbados in the Caribbean. Brathwaite has published a number of books of poetry and prose, including Black + Blues (New Directions, 1976, 1995), from which this poem is taken. He is currently a professor of comparative literature at New York University.
