snake moves, rippling from desert floor
mud-covered houses cool sands
fire
market women hum a sing-song
life’s pearling contralto
burnt baritone
brite yellow headwrap
drumming hands
feet singing
sketches
barefoot brown children
play futbol on uneven pitch
guinée coast
New York native Omowalé-Kétu Oladuwa is the son of Carrie and John Taylor, Margaret Fisher and Tyrone Foster, and the cultural student of “Chief” James Hawthorne Béy. Residing now in Indiana, Oladuwa discovered writing and his Afrikan identity on death row, where he began to write himself anew. Married and the father of five, he graduated Fordham University, and the Medill School of Journalism, at Northwestern University, with bachelors and masters degrees. His poem, “a force of nature,” was published in the inaugural edition of the Indianapolis Review. In 2013, he self-published a narrative poem on CD, “a thousand thousand fireflies never equal zero,” in collaboration with Dr. George Kalamaras, and Michael F. Patterson. Two audio chapbooks, “tone poems from an urban baobab,” and “blues dahlia, were released in 2014.” Prior to launching a 382-day, 48-state solo motorcycle sojourn, in the fall of 2015, Oladuwa launched his blog rootfolks poets press http//rootfolks.com. He has read his work at colleges and universities, schools and community centers, museums and other venues throughout the East Coast and Midwest.
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