March 1st, The Day After April

A twisted calendar sets the tone: when March 1st is the day after April, time falls out of rhythm. March 1st, The Day After April concludes a short sequence in the second part of the book The Rose That Grew from Concrete. Four poems within it revolve around a woman named April: 1 for April, Wife 4 Life (“Dedicated 2 April”), Tears from a Star (“4 Me & April”), and this concluding work, dedicated “2 the Divorce of Me & April”.

Who April was is not documented. The word “divorce” also stands here for the breakup of a young couple, not necessarily a marriage.

A Fortress Around the Heart

The poem begins with waking up. The speaker feels lonelier than before, but already sees new, positive possibilities. Tupac then draws on two images from nature: his heart shook as in the earthquake, after which the pain passed. An arctic wind had built a fortress around his fragile heart.

The definite article brings to mind the Loma Prieta earthquake. It shook the Bay Area, where Tupac was living at the time, in October 1989. However, this connection is not documented.

Leaving Because You Loved

The second stanza contains the core of the breakup: it is not that he does not love her-precisely because he loved her, he must move on. The poem ends with a promise to remember the “WE AS 2”.

According to the preface by Afeni Shakur, the poems were written between 1989 and 1991; the book gives no exact date. More on the book can be found in the introduction. With March 1st, April was now definitively behind him.