Focused On

Throw Me Somethin’ Mista

“Throw me my Motha Mista, alive well before age fifty and dancing whole,” writes poet MonaLisa Saloy. This poem kicks off this year’s Lens Carnival Edition, a collection of stories, photography, and poetry.
by MonaLisa Saloy
Photo by Gus Bennett courtesy of The New Orleans People Project.

Throw me somethin’ Mista
Throw me my pride in my step
Throw me my ancestors here, so we can Cha Wa & chat
’bout them, then & now

Throw me my Motha Mista, alive well before age fifty
dancin’ whole

Doin’ dishes & trying to sing the Christmas song like
Nat King Cole Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…
Throw me into a good Penny Party in the backyard
Mista when

Procession of women moving in a circle, using dance to tell the story of the Israelites and their 40-year circle. (Photo from New Orleans People Project)

Chunks of watermelon on a stick cold makes me
Forget it was ninety-eight degrees in the shade
Throw me a tomorrow of equal humanity working
Together for a better life, a
Better planet, a better truth
Throw me into space Mista, the
Galaxy glowing glad on God’s love
Picturing a peaceful earth from my left eye view
Throw me a penal system eclipsed of profit &
Promoting “rehabilitation” at the expense of voting rights,
Mista

Throw me a new Constitution that eliminates the
Electoral College now, whose need is
Outdated by technology; they don’t vote with the people!
Throw me a real “for-true”
American Democracy
Where the people’s vote counts

Mona Lisa Sally

MonaLisa Saloy, a native of New Orleans’ 7th Ward, served as the 2021-23 poet laureate of Louisiana. She is the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor of English at Dillard University. This poem was published in the Saloy’s collection of poems, Black Creole Chronicles(University of New Orleans Press, 2023) and reprinted here with permission.