TO BIG BILL BROONZY OF MISSISSIPPI

TO BIG BILL BROONZY OF MISSISSIPPI

it’s moving and it’s quiet in mISsissipI, MISSisSIP pi, miSSSSiSSSSi pI!

and she cries out in protest of the color of her skin:

if you’s white
you’s alright

if you’s brown
you can stick around

but as you’s black
get back, get back, get back!

sing the song, brother! the revolution never sticks around, but the song sings this dying!

we’s going down by th’ riva’ side!

      down by th’ riva’side
      down by th’ riva’side

gonna lay down my sWORd and shieLD

      down by th’ riva’side
      down by th’ riva’side
      down by th’ riva’side

and put on my golden slippers!


to Vera Ward

alabaMA!MA! alaBAM!a nother man done gone

i didn’t know his name BUT

he killed another man AND

i dunno where he went SO

i’m gonna walk it alone.

the song in the heart of hearts is the BluEs, it whisks away!


. . . georgia, georgia, georgia . . .

the whole damn night through!

. . . georgia, georgia, georgia . . .

geoRRRg i! a!
geoRRRRRR g i ! ah!

just an ol’ sweet song

keeping            Georgia,         Georgia,         Georgia—

she’s    on my mInd,

                    georgia !          g ! e ! o ! r ! g ! i ! a !

sing the deep Song; it’s only
there in . . . itst-st-utters!


where are you this night?        amabam amare,

“between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea!”

i don’t want you BUT
i hate to lose you

“between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea!”

i forgive you . . . i can’t forget you
“between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea!”

i hate you . . . i love you

“between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea!”

scrrrreeeeCH! ing! (of the night-owl)

it hoots. its wings.

[scit the scat]

it’s the Pop Wuh!

Batz! Jaguar of the Moon! chowén!

it’s the Mah U Kutâh!


Andrew Hill is currently a graduate student and French teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Currently, he is teaching English as a lecteur at the French university Paris III and taking French literature courses for a master’s degree by studying troubadour songbooks. He has published short stories and poems in Forge Journal, April Reader and Inwood Indiana Review, as well as translations of excerpts from Céline’s prison letters in Toad Suck Review. An English language translation of act one of Jean Genet's play Le bagne (previously untranslated) is forthcoming (2013).