Ahmos ZuBolton the Historian

Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps
Carl Van Vechten Library of Congress Archives

Ahmos ZuBolton the Historian
for Arna Bontemps (1902-1973)
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a glass world of negro people—
a blueblack night & red river moon
black people in alexandria louisiana
boyhood memories of what if…

if ahmos had met the boychild arna—
had grown up together gone fishing
for something to know and learn
crossed paths, plotting the future?

the whole day together mixing up—
the hours and the years later on that
would have become harlem renaissance
arna your boyhood friend and teacher

leaving the humpty-dumpty confederacy—
back there in old alexandria where there
was nothing but a lot of question marks
and both of you wanting some news

news about harlem, langston hughes—
wanting to live your lives like joe-louis poets
running the dirt roads like jackie robinson
reading books in segregated public libraries

making up stories together, creating—
dreamplaces where no huey p. longs lived
what would have become of that time while
both of you moved your boyhoods forward?

suffering half a century of the same—
segregated ex-slavery, would you have
become the poet you became later on
graying and mixing the years like me?

as only boys and old poets can—
with your winning creative writing fellowships
from both national endowment for the arts
and that louisiana state scholarship

and all your books: ain't no spring chicken—
all those dayz are gone now, I'm just talking
to myself now, my friend ahmos zubolton who
i met at lsu long ago editor delta journal