Sunday Kind of Love

By Bethsheba McGruder

“I do my Sunday dreaming, oh yeah and all my Sunday scheming every minute, every hour, every day…”   -Etta James, “Sunday Kind of Love”

I was12 years old and my mother would be in the kitchen cooking breakfast and my father would be sitting in the living room in his velvet green high back chair, with the pill buttons stitched across in vertical lines while reading the Sunday paper with his ebony wood pipe hung from his lips. The sweet smell of crushed tobacco leaves would linger in the air and a rusty, strong voice would bellow out pains of love on the record player and I was knelt down with my legs folded under my hips right next to my father, thinking about my Middle School crush while looking at the 45 Album cover of Etta James.

Glad for the memories thankful for her telling her story in “Rage To Survive.”

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EVERYTIME I TELL A STORY

By Arthur Flowers

 

hello tidal basin folk
i believe ima have to chill for awhile

invested in doing that barack piece and not feeling the love
i appreciate yall asking me to be the guest blogger sept

but you know i write my little pieces and i think i be wailing
but the literary world dont give me no respect and i know its

not going to actually affect the political dynamics, the realworld

mostly because i dont get no respect, who cares what i write

now i got the why did i even waste my time doing that blues

the everytime i tell a story i expect it to change the world blues

the why do i insist on spitting in the ocean blues – im feeling unappreciated

i know on the realside its cumulative, respect and readership build up over time
but i been doing this 30 years now and im still a footnote

everytime i hit i call myself hitting strong – i just dont see why i dont get no play

i look at all the ink ive invested in rootsblog/tidalbasin/facebook this last month

and i think i could have finished that novel for sure if i had been focused

then i got the schoolhouse taking up all my discretionary time,

between prep, classes, paperwork, meetings and student conferences
ive got to invest mon/tue/wed/thur into the schoolhouse full court press

which give me fri to rest, sat and sun to work – thats just not enuf to do otherstuff too
specially when you include domestic and family obligations etc

im just underwater, and everybody want to do lunch, folk want to hangout,
orgs asking me to do presentations, family folk always in crises

everybody want a piece of rick – everybody unhappy with me when i say look i just cant do it

but until i get this novel done i get no respect, none – i give it my best shot and i still get ignored

which has been the case with my books too, but at least they books, ima have to chill

im not whining toni, im just trying to focus

there is this throw in the iching that says the superior personality has two ways of influencing the world
you can contend for influence in the court or you can withdraw to work on yourself as a model for

future generations – i translate that as a spiral, engagement in the arena, withdrawal for reflection and renewal

i think ima chill for awhile,  got to get my work done – got a couple of pieces in the pipeline for you

so im not done with you – and i may be over this literary funk in a couple of days, maybe not

but for the moment im out

rdoc

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