Vox Populi
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Mike Schneider: New Orleans | Ragging Home
Romare Bearden, 1974
The tuba’s round eye of blackness
stares straight at you as it burps
& burps again while the band
blows slow drag & rattle
down the alley where a brown woman
leans from a balcony waving
a pink underthing, rippled,
shiny like a river. Play it
harder, she says as they shuffle
past. She knows that every night
about this hour a rooster flies
high over the milky windows
& the horns bleat like sheared lambs
missing their mama. She sways
her backside in rhythm, 2,500 miles
of slippery river if you count
the bends, all the way south
to the delta, muddy vulva
of a continent, birthing
a vibration, jazz, like a flutter
of wings, four white doves
crossing the blue darkness
in an arc below the moon’s
yellow sidewise smile.
The exhibition “Romare Bearden: Artist As Activist And Visionary” runs through Sept. 18, 2022 at The Frick Pittsburgh in Point Breeze.
Mike Schneider’s poem above first appeared in Motif: Writing by Ear, an anthology of writings about music, ed. Marianne Worthington (Motes Books: Louisville, KY, 2009). The poem also appears in Elvis Night at Johnny’s, a poetry chapbook by Mike Schneider (Broadstone Books, 2022).
Vox Populi 
She knows that every night
about this hour a rooster flies
high over the milky windows
& the horns bleat like sheared lambs
missing their mama.” Wow! Great lines, Mike!
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Thanks, Laure-Anne. Mike Schneider is a wonderful poet.
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Thank you, Laure-Anne. It’s great to know that one of my teachers has seen this & given a good grade. I hope you’re well.
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Oh this is so good! Thankyou!
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I agree. I think Schneider is a wonderful poet.
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