HARLEM SOUND: HALLELUJAH CORNER by William Browne.

Cymbals clash, and in this scene of annulled jazz,
gay stepping stompers roll in shouting
“Hallelujah” at a deposed “Spirit” until like a mimic-child,
it rages, stumbles, and lies exhausted strung like Jesus.

The honky-tonk riffs, runs, and breaks,
are superimposed on the sounds of weeping amen’s.
The mandrill sounds of tuba snorts,
coned by applauding tambourines;
laugh at the banjo-dance of amen-women
shouting at the boogie-woogie voice of God…..

Category: Celebration of Blackness,