Quinzee the Artist
Response
Clay
By Darice Marcella Jones
Inspiration piece
Out front
They called to me from their homes
And asked if I would stand out front
and face the world on behalf of our
Little yellow city in the sky
Me – because since I was small I had been
The eldest of sorts
Not born first, but imbued with the flows
and the codes of the ancient ones
A knowing pounded in my ears and chest
Like a djembe drum
Libation poured into me from the Alkebulan chalice
By my Mother, Charlene of the Nile
And by my Father, Daniel of Kalandula Falls
Water people
Counting on me to absorb, to transform, to decode seed, and nourish and to grow something
new
The townsfolk who called me were wounded inside
In the last round of combined white meteor and blue rain showers, they were bruised
Then again, they were bruised when a faction from Planet 20 came through degrading and stealing from our
beautiful, sensitive people
And though they had asked for me, they no longer trusted life
So they hissed, and insulted my efforts from the safety of their domiciles
And threw marbles onto the path as I walked along
They spit on the ground where I planted seeds, sometimes even running out to dig them up.
Then snickered together when no food grew there
They wrote songs about how clumsy my talks with the neighboring cities were, and how much
better things were before my arrival
And so here I am out front
Trying to remember as my Mother always told me to do
Trying to be be the joy beyond circumstances as my Father always told me to do
Trying to feel the fire placed in my soul by my
Eldest Sister, Donella of Maletsunyane
Listening to the breath
Of the Sisters, the Triad, and all of The Chosen
Here I am striking while the iron is hot
Humming the songs of everlast
Shaping the multi-colored clays of tomorrow
So that our little yellow city can re-emerge as a safe space
And my neighbors who curse me, from the untenable landscape of broken hearts
Can once again learn to trust life
To see their own power, to come outside boldly
And leap into another kind of embrace
By Darice Marcella Jones
In the year of Chinua Achebe © 2023
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