I

The cold cream
canyons
of the Colorado River
cut through the
southwest
w/ the ferociousness
of the cakewalk
& cakewalk across
the country.
They cakewalk into
town
& through the
city parks.
Anytown, USA
jumps & jives to
Stephen Foster.
Oh, & here come Christy’s
Minstrels,
burnt cork & all,
looking for a butcher
long and tall,
fiddling through
the halls of Macy’s
& the mall of america,
& down the tarmac
at The Rose Bowl
Parade.

II

Bug-eyed Grand Tetons
rise above
the western plains.
They rise above
us all
& see into our
souls.
The eyes of america,
the eyes of Bing Crosby
& Bill Clinton…
“[D]isplaying almost
every trope of
Blackness.”
The eyes of hurricanes
blowing like mad
banjo-strumming
Africans,
blowing like mad
Bird. 
When Donnie Mac
effaced Lakota land
in history books,
when Donnie Mac
erased history in
schoolboy minds,
the large eyeball
breasts of Mammy
towered over
Wyoming.

III

Ashy brow of
Lake Superior
washes over the shore
of Ontario
& the jagged cliffs
of Pictured Rocks.
Watermelon walls
on the road to Hibbing.
Copper Harbor
& Calumet, Michigan
& Isle Royale are read
in the lines of our
national face.
The face we show
to the world.
An american face painted
& feinted
under the pretense of
compassion.
The Great Lakes…
spilling from Tahquamenon
down to Niagara
down to The Gaspe
Peninsula
(w/ sounding humpbacks)
down to the
world.

IV

Locutus of Bones
crawls out of
the depths
of South Hadley,
Massachusetts.
Bedding down w/
the wench of New Awlins…
big & easy.
Down the highways
& byways
south from Duluth,
Minnesota.
Laying bone
& laying pipe.
Hokum pipe-fitter of New Anglind.
Hokum trouser-snake
of new world
capital.
The wench of New Awlins
is the lady of
the lake.
From Lake Pontchartrain
to the muddy mouth of
Louisiana
where Katie Webster
played the boogie woogie
& Bessie Smith refused
to play no second
fiddle
& Silas Green
jumped
Jim
Crow.

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Andre F. Peltier is a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he has taught African American Literature, Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, Poetry, and Freshman Composition since 1998. He lives in Ypsilanti, MI with his wife, children, turtles, dog, and cat. His poetry is forthcoming in The Great Lakes Review, La Piccioletta Barca, Big Whoopie Deal, Prospectus, Tofu Ink Press, and an anthology from Quillkeepers Press. In his free time, he obsesses about soccer and comic books. Twitter: @aandrefpeltier