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a barbershop on flatbush
it was if I had walked into a coup d’état a tribe of elders a cri de coeur old men sabotaged by blue baseball caps money green windbreakers thick creole accents old men eyes welling up with distrust checkerboard fingertips developed lips disapora line running across their forehead libations are given for the earthquake dead…
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War Crimes
Their faces distorted, Masks contorted to fit the shrunken bones. The final humiliation to be so alone And trapped in a cell of arrogance. The senseless deaths occuring From bravely spurning questions Asked not from curiosity, But animosity. How did these doctors not bleed From their believed stigmata, Surely they bartered with the devil For…
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In Passing
All the wisdom culled from passing freight Cars was a pastiche of countries Dreamed of as they slid away. Portable gang graffiti and hobo mumblings From distant villages in the hinterlands. Does Jill really blow and is Ned a freak? Half a journey’s stories subtracted, Placate the mind’s conjuring additions. I’m walking the tracks over…
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Bring It On for Ron Padgett
The different ways music comes on Is suddenly here holding sway In tiny sponge earphones trying to keep The roar of a airplane’s engine at bay. And, the late evening quiet broken by The rumble of a car With thunderous bass ebbing, flowing Away. Here Sibelius is washing The walls of the room with Subtle,…
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Doubt
Suspended above my body, I watch and await Counting the seconds till I make my great escape Late since birth I haven’t arrived for my own scene Criticizing my own rights, I’ve ambushed my dreams So quick to doubt when my gift needs no holiday Recognized religiously, daily no matter how they pray On their…