A few years back and they told me Black
 means a hole where other folks
 got brain/it was like the cells in the heads
 of Black children was out to every hour on the hour naps
 Scientists called the phenomenon the Notorious
 Jensen Lapse, remember?
 Anyway I was thinking
 about how to devise
 a test for the wise
 like a Stanford-Binet
 for the C.I.A.
 you know?
 Take Einstein
 being the most the unquestionable the outstanding
 the maximal mind of the century
 right?
 And I’m struggling against this lapse leftover
 from my Black childhood to fathom why
 anybody should say so:
 E=mc squared?
 I try that on this old lady live on my block:
 She sweeping away Saturday night from the stoop
 and mad as can be because some absolute
 jackass have left a kingsize mattress where
 she have to sweep around it stains and all she
 don’t want to know nothing about in the first place
 “Mrs. Johnson!” I say, leaning on the gate
 between us: “What you think about somebody come up
 with an E equals M C 2?”
 “How you doin,” she answer me, sideways, like she don’t
 want to let on she know I ain’
 combed my hair yet and here it is
 Sunday morning but still I have the nerve
 to be bothering serious work with these crazy
 questions about
 “E equals what you say again, dear?”
 Then I tell her, “Well
 also this same guy? I think
 he was undisputed father of the Atom Bomb!”
 “That right.” She mumbles or grumbles, not too politely
 “And dint remember to wear socks when he put on
 his shoes!” I add on (getting desperate)
 at which point Mrs. Johnson take herself and her broom
 a very big step down the stoop away from me
 “And never did nothing for nobody in particular
 lessen it was a committee
 and
 used to say, ‘What time is it?’
 and
 you’d say, ‘Six o’clock.’
 and
 he’d say, ‘Day or night?’
 and
 and he never made nobody a cup a tea
 in his whole brilliant life!
 and
 [my voice rises slightly]
 and
 he dint never boogie neither: never!”
 “Well,” say Mrs. Johnson, “Well, honey,
 I do guess
 that’s genius for you.”


















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