How to Dig Nina

By Regie O'Hare Gibson

First,
Abandon what you know about voice, brother-
What makes it and women beautiful…
And just put your hands into earth,
Close your eyes, and listen to alluvia, indigo root,
Coals bituminous narrative speaking the fossil wet womb.

Next,
Place an ear to your grandmothers back-
To where it bends at its most incurable angle.
Hear the holy conflagration of tambourines -
The orgied boot stomp holler - the sermoned ring shout
of ripened hands.

Then,
Wait. Wait until language un-shackles a tongue flame
Above your head. When this happens (as it always will) -
Your mouth will germinate a naked song.

That night,
Go bury that song in your lover
Until her breasts opalesce with milk, until her belly
Becomes blossom and mother note.