Remembering Amiri

Now that the old world has crashed around me
And it's raining in early summer
I live in Harlem with a baby shrew and
Suffer for my decadence which kept me away so long
When I walk in the streets
The streets don't yet claim me
And people look at me
Knowing the strangeness of my manner
And the objective stance from which
I attempt to "love" them
It was always predicted this way
This is what my body told me always
When the child leaves, and
The window goes on looking out on еmpty walks
You will sit and dream of old things
And things that could never happеn
You will be alone
And ponder on your learning
You will think of old facts
And sudden seeings which made you more
Than you had bargained for
Yet a coward on the earth
Unless you claim it
Unless you step upon it with your heavy feet
And feel actual hardness