Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith was a pretty easy read for me. I skipped around a lot when reading it, but I really enjoyed a majority of the poetry inside. Which is odd because I'm really not a big fan of poetry. My favorite poem to read was Ethel's Sestina I actually read it for the first time when we read it in class. It was probably one of the easier reads for me. I really like the story being told, even though it is a sad story, I really enjoyed it. Ethel just keeps asking her son, Herbert when help is going to come, and her son continues to reply that help is on the way. After the long wait Ethel ends up not making it, but she assures her son that it is okay because she is in a better place now. She is in a place where she no longer has to sit in her chair, "Don't cry, boy, I ain't in that chair no more (p. 46)." She can walk again, and now that she can walk again she has started a whole new journey, "Wish you coulda come on the journey, son, seen that ol' sweet sun lift me out of sleep (p. 46). Even though Ethel didn't make it, she was happy where she was. She can now look over her son from above.
I enjoyed the poem after continuing the story, Didn't Need No Music, Neither. It's a nice reassurance because you know Ethel Freeman really is in a better place. She explains that help did finally come is was better help than she could have ever imagined. They were angels, "... dressed in the kind of white that blinds (p. 47)." In the first poem it never just came out and said that she was no longer in her chair, it was just kinda obvious, but in this poem you know for sure that she was no longer in her chair, "You didn't see them, boy, you ain't seen me walk away with one of them on each arm like a li'l ol' sassy gal? Don't tell me you missed mama on her ol' legs dancing with them pretty mens in the mud? (p. 47)."
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