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Wanda Coleman
Wanda Coleman
Born in 1946, Wanda Coleman grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles...
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An Eternity
by Archibald MacLeish
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In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever

 
by Wanda Coleman

we were never caught

we partied the southwest, smoked it from L.A. to El Dorado 
worked odd jobs between delusions of escape
drunk on the admonitions of parents, parsons & professors 
driving faster than the road or law allowed. 
our high-pitched laughter was young, heartless & disrespected 
authority. we could be heard for miles in the night

the Grand Canyon of a new manhood. 
womanhood discovered
like the first sighting of Mount Wilson

we rebelled against the southwestern wind 

we got so naturally ripped, we sprouted wings, 
crashed parties on the moon, and howled at the earth 

we lived off love. It was all we had to eat

when you split you took all the wisdom
and left me the worry






Copyright © 2001 by Wanda Coleman. Reprinted from Mercurochrome: New Poems with the permission of Black Sparrow Press. All rights reserved.
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