Sketches

by Maisha Baton

Sketches by Maisha Baton

She has survived her own childhood.
And from the ashes of her early rebellion
and cluttered kitchens she has returned.

See her stylin’ and profilin’
against a backdrop of graffiti buildings.
See her tossin’ them hips, them braids;
bendin’ and swayin’ under the weight
of the long summer day.
She is like an enigma in the wind,
a mystery even unto herself,
draggin’ bags and baby from these mean streets
to some long imagined corner of the world.

Who will notice her passage?

The boys at the corner dissin’ and dattin’,
they got their own concerns.
As for the child in her arms,
he will forget these few brief moments
almost before the door closes
on the crosstown bus
to the human services office.

— “A Young Mother”

Sketches contains 30 short poems from the author’s hometown of Pittsburgh, seven more from her adopted city of Albuquerque, and a final poem, “Gemini,” situating the poet “in the valley of my blackness” where “I hear music, marimbas and cowbells,/ drum calls emanating from the depth of my dark longing/ where I will dance in cosmic ecstacy/ giving and receiving life/ never ending.”

Her sketches of people and their lives radiate a clarity of insight and a measured, respectful response to all of them alike.

“Maisha Baton cuts individual portraits of people from Pittsburgh to Albuquerque, amassing a collection that spans universal concerns of race and place, disenfranchisement and resilience, a collection in which ‘God wears many faces’ and we get to read them.” — Lisa Gill

“Each person in this book, as in the world, is irreplaceable and rich with the mysteries and contradictions of their choices and their fates.” — V. B. Price

5½ x 8½ inches • 54 pages • ISBN 978-0-9816693-9-7 • $11.95
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