I wrote this poem to pay homage to the poets that inspired me to get started. Dike Omeje was a driving force of BrothaTalk and the first poet I ever saw in performance. This poem is dedicated to them all and in memory of him. Fanfare for BrothaTalk In memory of Dike Omeje I love your big, bold, beautiful, brown mouths. Brothas, I feel the flames of your words and the hunger in your ears down the curve of my spine to hear the penny drop in rapt and shocked attention. It's in the power of five you come alive as each face take the pace from the last shooting fast from the lips, hitting hard with the quips, slipping sweetly from your trigger slick-wit tongues. Your voices so strong, so quietly true to your hearts as you bare, strut and stand man to man, banded together by the burning, searching tang of your talk. Brothas, I hear you speak one by one to the leaden-pitted core you melt through my blind middle eye rhyming right into the mould of my soul. Righteous and resplendent, Resilient and resonant, Brothas, I love the way you talk.