Riff on Susanna Jones (original Version)
after Langston Hughes
Susanna Jones
(as good a name as any)
wears black and red
like a nocturnal rocket's tail
shimmery spume
motile
syncopated step
fish quiver
shells in waves off-center
stepping from sea or stone
trumpets more like cannon
shattering night
Eastern olive sky
reborn as
latent throb of
need long sanded over
rising in flesh
enraptured
Riff on Susanna Jones
after Langston Hughes
Re(En)Visioned)
Susanna Jones
wears mojo and red
like an idyllic rocket's tail
shimmery spume
arcing
syncopated step
fish quiver
scallops in waves ridges off-center
spinning out of sea or stone
trumpets like cannon
shattering night
olive sky
reborn as
undergirding throb of
need long lacquered over
rising in flesh
© 2020 Stan Galloway
Stan Galloway, author of one poetry collection and three chapbooks, is the Founder and Director of the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival. He teaches writing and literature at Bridgewater College in the Shenandoah Valley.
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
Beautiful – pulls me into the scene – I like it much better than Hughes!