This past week, Five-Two alum Aja Beech asked me to contribute a poem with a Philadelphia connection for Poetry Month at the Kensington Neighborhood Library.
I chose "Prayer for the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72" by Charles Harper Webb, who was born in Philadelphia. I reprinted Webb's poem with permission in the 2011 fourth chapbook of The Lineup: Poems on Crime series that preceded The Five-Two.
My contribution and commentary appeared on the library's Facebook page last night. Thanks again to Aja and supervisor of the library's Adult/Teen section Sara S. Palmer.
As a bonus, here's Keith Snyder's April 30, 2011 dramatic reading of Webb's poem. Keith will also be reading the May 18-24, 2020 Five-Two poem "CA" by Ron Riekki, about playground basketball in the time of COVID-19.
The boy ran until his legs collapsed and drug himself on his belly
into the scrubland. He kept breathing low, like mami taught him
when she held him close on long evenings atop a railcar.
There was still yelling in the distance where the light was strong.
He lay his forehead on folded arms. Dust clouding his face with each breath. He looked
to the left and saw a single shoe for a child smaller than his five years.
Above him, on the spikey leaves of a small canotia,
shredded fabric from a shirt for someone very large.
It waved slowly with the air.
The yelling in the distance calmed to a voiceless hum
and then into silence.
All light was gone but for the stars
He peered into the darkness
and whispered “Mami, aqui.”
After a moment he used his elbows to prop up his
thin arms and spoke louder. The whole night he lay there hidden in the starlit scrubland,
listening carefully to the wind for an answer.
Aja reads "Borders":
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Aja confesses:"It is my firm belief that all Americans should be concerned with the harsh conditions people endure traveling north into the U.S. from South America. Thousands of people are known to have died trying to cross Arizona deserts in the past two decades and it is estimated that 24% of those now crossing the Southern border into America are under the age of 14."
AJA BEECH lives in Philadelphia, PA. Sometimes she work at a paper store, sometimes she is a freelance author, all of the time she is a mother to two sons. Some of the publications where her work can be found are at The Five-Two, Al Dia News, Apiary Magazine, Certain Circuits, Huffington Post, Incandescent Mind, WHYY Newsworks, and Twelve Winters Press. Articles about her work have appeared at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Generocity, two.one.five Magazine, and The Philadelphia City Paper. Her poem, "for you women", was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. In 2010, she received a Leeway Art and Change Grant to compile an art and poetry chapbook concerned with the death penalty. In 2011, she was named a Creative Connector in Philadelphia.
Aja confesses:"In 2008, I saw an interview with Dick Cheney on television in which he was describing the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Airbase. People who declared themselves Taliban took responsibility for the bombing, which took the lives of 23 people on the base, saying Cheney was the intended target."
Photo by Sean Bolton
AJA BEECH is an independent freelance author writing about social issues and the arts, primarily in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, for news outlets like WHYY’s Newsworks, CBS Local Online and The Huffington Post. In 2010, she received a Leeway Art and Change Grant to compile to art and poetry concerned with the death penalty. In 2011, Beech was named one of Philadelphia’s Creative Connectors. Her poem, "for you women", was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. Activism and organizing is highly intertwined with her non-fiction work. More over her work can be found online at www.processpress.wordpress.com follow on Twitter @ajabeech.
