Month: February 2010

CONCRETE CONFINEMENT

I place my deepest thoughts on this paper, hoping somebody reads it.
Put my life out there like a spectacle, hoping somebody sees it.
I envision all the tension not shown on television.
People struggling to the end to just wind up at the beginning.
The whole world needs an intervention.
See my brother as an ally instead of competition.
I’ve been blessed with a world of flaws.
A world with many closed doors for you and yours living life poor.
Shots in the air, empty shells on the floor.
How can our country go to Iraq with these internal wars.
Racism, fascism, the blacks the hell with them.
That’s the words from the mouth of these government dogs.
Would you life your life for nothing?
Or would you die for a cause?
I see lives lost everyday.
, over bitches, weed, and Alize.
Even heard one about a video game.
It use to be bitches, Jordan’s and cocaine.
Before that bitches, heroin and gold chains.
For a food stamp now get a slug to the brain.
There’s no signs of a hero.
There’s no signs of a change.
We must be self productive if we wish to sustain.

The Flexing of Time

We’re coming on.
Just about to hit the spot.
Ask, and you shall be questioned.
Carry on, pass this way, no that way.
Look harder into….Those eyes just say it.
All out and about the robin did run.
Touchy, feely, please heel when I call.
Alabaster, mother of plaster, holder of lost
Prayers and causes raise your hands.
Clap, clap your silence over my ears.

Pass the suddenness.
Leaven out what holds.
Gather, parse out what fills.
Park on the escarpment, catch incoming.
The horizon then includes all views.

There is ever draining.
Your part is not always apparent.
Out walking in the frantic, stolid world of work
You face all those caught in their niche:
The cell phone talkers, the transient music lovers lost
In their reverie. And, those talking to themselves,
No audience or response needed.
The lines are long, hard to recall.
The tape hums, waits for instructions.

Across the lawn shadows advance
To the porch, the doorstep, enclosing
Finally the front room windows.

Barges gulp the breeze in the thick water.
The tide roils in and out flexing
Its inner ticking, tacking.

Out in the distance
Birds call to each other,
Challenge the vast sky with their songs.

Let this be centered near the closing,
Insistent, rambling, never satisfied heart.

Atonement

One more moment
We exist like this always
But where have we gone, been?

Away from it,

I sit here, reverently
In a matter of an instant, most things have changed
Where am I going? I ask the coffee table
It will be here for me tomorrow, so there is my answer
The mirror holds my enabler.
That painting. Dead,
Like porcelain. Beautiful,
Like that too. Alive?
Always a possibility
I must keep moving, so
Solidification and the,
Stagnation can not, keep up, and
Keep up

Respectively.
Respectfully,

I lay here, in reverence
Under stars that will reveal themselves to me
City lights can’t stop this. This process
Not if I remember.
Old ties and, forth coming lies
For them, I mourn.
New existence takes this life out of old souls
Know better. Been here before.
The Tower – is a myth
So true. It crumbles. And then shakes
Energy, not destroyed. It, seeds this place
Then starts anew

But, I’ve imagined much of this. This is obvious to me
What was not so clear, was that everything before this: imagined, as well
Dreaming the impossible, in real time
Leaves space for all things
You can never do

What I Learned Watching For The Love of Ray J Season 2

Ironically, I did pick up some pointers from this “hit” reality show. Obviously, the kid wasn’t/isn’t looking for the love of his life…he’s a young cat that enjoys fame. So any woman that auditioned and really truly thought it would be more is a tad bit touched. But here are some things I did learn:

1. There is something to be said about choosing to be with someone that lives a similar lifestyle to yours now and in the future. If you value family, you probably won’t do too well with someone who values running the streets. It just won’t work. And that’s not to say either person’s position is right or wrong…it just is what it is.
2. An important factor in dating is getting to know someone…the crust of a muthasuckaJ And to do that, you need to be able to ask question, express yourself, and have fun. If it’s not fun at the dating stage, why would your expectation be that it will be better later? That’s ass backward. It should start fun and than go downhill (jokes!…kind of).
3. Involving your family members in tomfoolery such as having them meet random men/women in your life is a little/lot self defeating. You’re wasting everyone’s time. And there’s nothing more embarrassing to experience than meeting family members that you’ll never deal with again.
4. Do your best to carry yourself as best you can. Even when someone acts a monkey in a potentially public environment (like a reunion show) be enough of a lady to keep it together rather than going Maury “I TOLD you you were the father!” on folks. Bad look.

So in conclusion, though I think Ray J is a hot mess he has willing participants in his antics. And if there is a season 3…maybe I’ll watch and pick up some more pointers. Ha ha!

Two New York Poems

Knowing the Truth in memory of Frank O’Hara

Turn out all those stop lights please
I’m on the go again
pack it up
put on your hat the caretaker is away
for the weekend your heart is allowed
to fly around at will once more

The curse of rubber stockings
in a bathysphere &
dreams of Asian babes
throwing parasols at you should
cease & desist
Pocket
the change from this segment of your life
The shop is locked
I don’t care
There are no dress rehearsals in this here
neck of the woods
Park the car
walk the wet street
Spinach or peas please
me I take this cup that
no one offers
that no one has to tell me is mine
ask the cashier where the nearest refill is

The light changes
& you with it
The cars are brightly colored
I can’t choose never could read a map
love a dog
eat a big lunch keep you happy
very long

To A Martyred Painter in memory of Mark Rothko

No one is thinking about you much anymore.
The large book of your paintings hasn’t been
Checked out in years.

I fear fashion has moved elsewhere.
You are the old master; there are
New reputations to be made.
I look at your solemn eyes,
Do not see the light that must
Have shone inside,
Spilled out into your hands

To glow from the canvases,
Pulse like your heartbeat.
Color hanging in the air
With your cigarette smoke:

Darkness of the mind, fire
Of the soul share their rectangular place.
Placed together where melancholy
Reigned & rained in the winter wet

Of NYC, where your breath
Flowed out amongst the buildings,
Days on end and out of your body
The last time. The colors gone.