The Soultown! Volume III: Issue 7 JULY 2019

THE GRIOT Mr. Orpheus Widow’s Blues CEDAR FALLS, IA - Mr. Orpheus Widow felt sleepy and dozed off on the recliner, while his right hand held what looked like a flagon of Hennessey. Dreams delivered him to dream -- The place looked like Jubilee UM Resource Center in Waterloo, Iowa. A group of black folks seemed to be stage-reading lines from what sounded like The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. A handsome black man, who looked and sounded like a well-know Reverend from the area, was playing Avery, a preacher. He was wooing Berniece, a widow. Avery asked Berniece how long she gonna Carry Crawley with her beyond three years. “At some point you got to let go and go on.” “I know how long Crawley’s been dead.” Mr. Orpheus Widow stopped listening. He hummed his own widow blues: I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. So, don’t ask me how long I gonna carry her spirit with me. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. So, don’t ask me how long I gonna carry her spirit with me. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. Genius hasn’t given me “the lethe to drink.” I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. Genius hasn’t given me “the lethe to drink.” (that I “may tell no tales.”) I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I was there in Iowa City when she breathed her last. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I was there in Iowa City when she breathed her last. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I wrote the date and time in my journal. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I wrote the date and time in my journal. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead Over four years I’ve been on my grief journey. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. Over four years I’ve been on my grief journey. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. Each year I re-memory her. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. Each year I re-memory her. I’ve been trying to find pathways to joy again. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I’ve been trying to find pathways to joy again. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. That’s why I ain’t let life be DR. PIERRE gone out of my hands. MVUYEKURE I know how long my The Griot Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. That’s why I ain’t let life be gone out of my hands. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. Each night I sleep in an empty-bed blues. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. NOTE TO THE EDITORS: Each night I sleep in an empty-bed blues. “Solomon Mihoro’s Refugee Camp Song” is a I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I just can’t let go and move on like that. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. I just can’t let go and move on like that. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. “Grief and resilience live together,” says Michelle Obama. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. “Grief and resilience live together ,” says Michelle Obama. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. God knows I’ve been healing my heart. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. God knows I’ve been healing my heart. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. God bears witness I’ve been rebuilding my life. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. God bears witness I’ve been rebuilding my life. I know how long my Eurydice Sugira’s been dead. prequel to “I Wish I Could Sing of ‘the Sweetest Years” (The Soultown, April 2019) and Signifies on/rewrites a chapter in The Song of Songs--the last poem in the trilogy is ready for July issue- -Besides my dad Bisama, who was a diviner and a medicine man, the poem celebrates African (Sebatunzi, Koffi Olomide, Papa Wemba (Wembadio) and African American artists (Robert Johnson, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Trey Songz), Shakespeare, and T.S. Eliot. Ultimately, the poem recounts the story of marriage and love gone wrong during the Rwandan Refugee Crisis in 1994, as millions of Rwandans fled into Zaïre, fearing reprisals from the Rwandan Patriotic Front. I am Dr. Pierre Mvuyekure, Griot for The Soultown International Magazine. I’d like to thank the African storytellers for having SOUL! , Learn more from The Griot at: http://www.thesoultown.com/the-griot.html July 2019 • The Soultown International Magazine • Celebrating 2 years • Connecting Our Cultures to Our Cyber & Conscious Communities • thesoultown.com 23

The Soultown! Volume III: Issue 7 JULY 2019 | Page 23