Remembering Billie Holiday

 

Overworked mind,
soul looking for a place to rest,
body in need of a place to be,
waiting for that moment
to run into moonlight.

Dance where others
only dare to stand.

Shout into the silence
until it shatters
and fill heaven
with what you can offer.

Do what you can
even when you have little.
Will your will to be
where others block your way.

This is how the voice
of an overworked mind
finds the strange fruit
that sustains its soul
and reshapes a people’s history.

 

Janet Cormier is a painter, writes prose and poetry, and performs comedy. Janet prefers different and original over pretty. She loves collecting stuff, but cleaning not so much. Janet also talks to strangers. A lot. Her column appears weekly on Oddball Magazine.