mama gave me one
my first one, a big bold tablet of blocks
like a pictogram of letters. I could spread
myself in the Florida room
the perfume of crayon or chalk
in yellow sunshine or robin’s egg blue
in aquamarine or Carribean green
as deep as the ocean, it’s bubble gum pink
like a flamingo, yes my first alphabet book
on one page she called it onion paper,
layers of me poured out like grit
like chickens, like living Southern
or Florida, or Jamaica or whatever mix, but

I created it from color. My first one
had my name written, it lived with me
all these years of doctor and school
of church and rule, all those pencil boxes
full of shredded crayola when I had to stay

within the lines it was mine, all mine
every year the bookshelf grew larger
as the family gathered, read to me
a story, orate, recite, tie your shoelaces,
all the pedagogy, all the overstory
it’s written, it’s hidden in the root or route
of my mouth, with the house as setting
until we outgrew the simple and moved
to the complex, until we asked for more.

Robert Gibbons moved to New York City in the summer of 2007 in search of his muse—Langston Hughes. Robert has been featured in many venues around New York City as well as in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Florida. He most recently has offered his poetic performances in such places as Cornelia Street Café, the Church of the Village, the Saturn Series, Perch Café, Barnes and Noble, Stark Performances, Otto’s Shrunken Head, Poets on White, Nomad’s Choir, Taza de Café and many others. Robert has been published in Uphook Press, Three Rooms Press, Stain Sheets, Brownstone Poets Anthology, Dinner with the Muse, Cartier Street Review, Nomad’s Choir and the Palm Beach Post. Additionally, Robert has taken classes with Cave Canem and the 92Y and has studied under master poets such as Cornelius Eady, Marilyn Nelson, Kimiko Hahn, Nathalie Handal, Linda Susan Jackson, Kevin Young and Kwame Dawes. Robert just released his first collection of poetry published by Three Rooms Press, Close to the Tree.