What birthday month magic (yessSsss Lions! especially Whitney in 2025) came my way. This poem (and the absolutely fabulous coretta scott king award winning book where it is housed) was a very favorite gift.
LEO
you that cool cat
who bought the three piece suit off layaway
and wore the alligator
Stacy Adams
to the club so we could bask in you
a yearning to be in the care of your arms
the protections of your pride
deep warm Bastet
sun queen of Kings.
lover of lovers. generously ours
bounding in power and flourishing
in your softness
you make the dapper divine
and the royal real
and you roar heavenly laughter
all sweet
a lioness sunflower
full of seeds and heat
you are an immediate feeling
adored for your sensuality
and fierceness and for the luxury
of your smile
Leo sun, wild for us hot for us
to surround ourselves in your glow
and sultry and burning
-Junauda Petrus (author of The Stars and the Blackness Between Them, current Mpls Poet Laureate)