somebody coming in blackness
like a star
and the world be a great bush
on his head
and his eyes be fire
in the city
and his mouth be true as time
he be calling the people brother
even in the prison
even in the jail
i’m just only a baptist preacher
somebody bigger than me coming
in blackness like a star
--Lucille Clifton, john
Image source 1: Kehinde Wiley’s Saint John the Baptist (2014), https://nmaahc.si.edu/kehinde-wiley
Image source 2: Lippo Memmi, Saint John the Baptist (ca. 1325), tempera on panel, https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.434.html
Poem source (and recording of the author reading her work)
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