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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: COLEMAN, WANDA Matches Found: 734 Coleman, Wanda Poet's Biography Alternate Author Name(s): Coleman-straus, Wanda 734 poems available by this author 1746 CHEROKEE NORTH First Line: Six stories of sweat, swill and decaying stucco 24 HOURS UP First Line: Day. Brings the heat of success Last Line: Day, but made midnight on schedule 3 AM BREAKFAST AT THE SOUTHTOWN First Line: Sistuh baby sistuh cherry cherry cherubim Last Line: Eyes instead of tears 436 MOONS First Line: My graying kinks %my heteromorphic tongue my jealous claws Last Line: Violence is a language and a bullet %sudden insight 6 A.M. JOG IN THE DARK TO FORGET LAST NIGHT'S BAD DREAM First Line: The slap 8 P.M. DISPUTE First Line: Featuring pain on drums A STONEHOLD Poem Text First Line: The thief has made me a gift of his night's booty Last Line: I take these things and promise to say mum ABOUT FLOWERS First Line: Running gag about carnations Last Line: Every plant that comes here dies ABOUT GOD & THINGS Poem Text First Line: I want to have your child Last Line: What god is about Subject(s): African Americans; Man-woman Relationships; Negroes; American Blacks; Male-female Relations ABOUT MISTAKES First Line: When black you can't afford too many ACCOUNTS PAYABLE First Line: I've been reduced to rubber-tipped fingers Last Line: My days here are numbered AFRICA First Line: Ball-and-jack %a laugh so loud certain people Last Line: The shadow of a shadow casting shade %on my bones AFRICAN SLEEPING SICKNESS First Line: Four centuries of sleep they say Last Line: Sing to me, I say. Sing to me of rivers AFRICAN SLEEPING SICKNESS (2) First Line: Orgasmic psychosis -- coming and nevah coming Last Line: Between my thighs runs the river whiskey and he -- he is a %divin' duck AFRICAN SLEEPING SICKNESS (3) First Line: I sleep to wake and take my sleeping slow Last Line: I learn by groping where I'm damned to go AFTER HIS FLIGHT First Line: We're back to square one Last Line: As we douse the light AFTER THE POEM (3) First Line: The reading is over. Satisfied/it was Last Line: Then grins at me, ear-to-ear %having made his point AFTERWARDS WE MAKE UP First Line: Blood among my tears Last Line: (synergism abandoned for more %solipsitic venues) %my body his again AKBAR THE MAD POET First Line: Otherwise known as someone else, take luther Last Line: The offender crushed %in his own hand AL 1968 First Line: I stole away those summer nights to lay up in his arms Last Line: Babe, it's all bullcorn' ALL ABOUT HUMBUG First Line: The street kid from watts cries Last Line: The streets/skies are gonna roar %and rain blood ALL AMERICAN SOFT LIFE SWEEPSTAKES First Line: The computer printed my name wrong ALL MAPS TELL LIES First Line: Measure for yourself. The united states will Last Line: And we who take them factually %lost ALL OF THAT First Line: She woke to find the pillow strapped between her Last Line: Without the benefit of feet ALSO KNOWN AS THE BISHOP OF BOP First Line: 3 days after the mule kicked the coffin over Last Line: As the walls opened up and invited him in AMERICAN SONNET (1) First Line: The lurid confessions of an ex-cake junky: I blew it Last Line: To chicago, baby do you want to go AMERICAN SONNET (10) Poem Text First Line: Our mothers wrung hell and hardtack from row Last Line: Yearning to avenge the raping of the womb / from which we sprang Subject(s): Slavery; Serfs AMERICAN SONNET (10) First Line: Our mothers wrung hell and hardtack from row Last Line: Yearning to avenge the raping of the womb %from which we sprang AMERICAN SONNET (11) First Line: The moon is livid white. Pacifica boils Last Line: He spits. 'and stay there' AMERICAN SONNET (2) First Line: For outshining the halos of heaven's greedy archangels Last Line: Not for any crime %but being AMERICAN SONNET (3) First Line: Fair splay/pay -- the stuff myths are made of Last Line: That is not the color of my skin AMERICAN SONNET (35) Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Boooooooo. Spooky ripplings of icy waves. This Last Line: Usta be young usta be gifted -- still black AMERICAN SONNET (35) First Line: Boooooooo. Spooky ripplings of icy waves. This Last Line: Usta be young usta be gifted -- still black AMERICAN SONNET (4) First Line: Rejection can kill you Last Line: All the lights are red all the poets are dead %and there are no norths AMERICAN SONNET (5) First Line: Rusted busted and dusted Last Line: After supper muthafucka AMERICAN SONNET (54) First Line: Dearest cousin, %forgive this ruined narrative begging the first Last Line: One-palm island dwells no such beast as joy AMERICAN SONNET (55) First Line: Down to the stingy stingy marrow of my mojo rant Last Line: Inflames my vigilant soul denies it rest Variant Title(s): Sonnet: 55 Subject(s): African Americans; Stock Exchange; Wylie, Elinor (1885-1928); Negroes; American Blacks AMERICAN SONNET (6) First Line: Portfolio profligates of creative capitalism Last Line: What does fame do without money AMERICAN SONNET (8) First Line: Not just another marketeer Last Line: Maintaining cool under pressure AMERICAN SONNET (83) First Line: Here comes dat nasty music again %that atmospheric ash Last Line: You will see your comuppance snorting %on the other shore, bow-legged & sneakered AMERICAN SONNET (86) First Line: All our prophets -- dead. All our gold proves lead Last Line: The mere thought of wetness & not the actuality %all that progress missed. All the beautiful shit AMERICAN SONNET (9) First Line: Love people use things Last Line: Use people love things AMERICAN SONNET (91) Poem Text First Line: The gates of mercy slammed on the right foot Last Line: Was't hunger or holiness spurred the sighting? AMERICAN URBAN CAMP First Line: The economically stimulated thirst for blood; the unrelenting Last Line: Jonestown, guyana 934 ANALECTS First Line: In the world of game best game Last Line: The street of dreams %is a crowded avenue AND GOD LIVES IN CHICAGO First Line: Another cup of soap opera blood ANGERED TO SILENCE Last Line: More difficult this pen %than killing APPLEJUICE First Line: Dis am da boogerscape where electronic frankensteins Last Line: The heart is a tourist who can't get a cab APTITUDE TEST First Line: Three black men standing on the corner are Last Line: The new neighbor from a war-torn country AR'IOCH First Line: Disguised as a man he made his way into her Last Line: One was not bad for looks her good fleshy musk like mother %never was ARRIVAL BY SUNRISE First Line: At seventeen, daddy hitched into town two Last Line: Denim coveralls to pin - striped suits and wing - tips ARS POETICS First Line: He came down the mountain Last Line: And went back to the kitchen ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG First Line: Playpoets gather round Last Line: He is ruler of the realm ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (2) First Line: Twinight earth my flesh quakes Last Line: The blue fag looks out over sunset. Smiles %traffic for miles ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (3) First Line: Black eye laced in pancake, she sips seven-up Last Line: And requests that someone piss quick before he %dies of thirst ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (4) First Line: The whine: %bepalmed avenue. Long walk, trying to avoid the burger Last Line: And when he turned full profile, the pain subsided/journey resumed %I am safe ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (5) First Line: The vacationing clerk is on her way to santa barbara Last Line: In london he/she all the rant ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (6) First Line: The cross is ready. They have made it strong, electric Last Line: Bends beneath his crown of thorns %suppresses a yawn ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (7) First Line: The pros & cons of sex preference ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (8) First Line: The page of swords ART IN THE COURT OF THE BLUE FAG (9) First Line: I've swallowed something wrong Last Line: A placenta of solid gold ARTICLE IN THE NEWSPAPER First Line: He says it's important news about the virus Last Line: And wish them good health AS AN ARBUS First Line: Bleeding from the shutter butt, weeds nourished Last Line: Mask-like at the fat tabby jumping spryly into her %skirted lap %ha-ha AS SEEN THRU WINDOWS First Line: Rolled three-quarters down it frees smoke. He picks her up ASHMAN First Line: Over green felt I side-pocket the 8-ball Last Line: Nuthin' in my purse AT THE JAZZ CLUB HE BECOMES A GHOST First Line: Remember? We were here once, love was a new cut Last Line: Lover's wallet while he sleeps and steals away Subject(s): Jazz; Music And Musicians AT THE RECORD HOP First Line: Bobby-soxers exchange clandestine feels Last Line: Wonder why boys don't like me AT THE STOP First Line: Virgo stella slips out to give Last Line: Harder I struggle to get out %deeper I go AUGURIES (1) First Line: Pied-eyes rhythm sticks & ginger root Last Line: Are you watching the skies AUGURIES (2) First Line: Rose hips ginseng dandelion & dill Last Line: To call the authorities AUGURIES (3) First Line: Reefer champagne c-notes & mellow Last Line: Johnny hartman johnny hartman AUGURIES (4) First Line: Wind chimes patchouli wicker & sage Last Line: I want to kill something AUGURIES (5) First Line: Nightshade tiger balm ash & talc Last Line: Rain and sun in the same skin AUGURIES (6) First Line: Adder's-tongue jacaranda rosewood & oak Last Line: Blood of the shaman -- head of the crow AUGUST 29TH 1970 First Line: Ruben they are knockin' in the door Last Line: Man -- they sendin' you into manana AUNT JESSIE First Line: She wanted pretty fine Last Line: She always wanted. Things %turned her face to the wall %died AUNT TERESA First Line: There was vanity in her colored lady stiffness AYIN OR NO ONE First Line: Wind or voice of god Last Line: One traveling flesh of the other over and over this ritual coitus/%rendering of %delirium BABY I'VE GOT THE REDS First Line: Drams of men night heat I sleep rut hard nipples & cold %fear Last Line: Baby -- I've got the reds BABY MAKER First Line: For five figures and the better fortune BAD Poem Text First Line: Night at the taco house Last Line: Everybody kept their distance Subject(s): Waiters & Waitresses BAD First Line: Night at the taco house Last Line: And from that day till the day I quit %everybody kept their distance Subject(s): Waiters And Waitresses BAD EYES & THE WRONG PRESCRIPTION First Line: The forbidden door is made of locks Last Line: Betrayed by secret winks BAPTISM First Line: Riptide washes over %and the depths of oceanic rhythms Last Line: And the couches and tables catch fire %a burning in the wetness BARRY'S GOODBYE First Line: I don't know the man. He lies on top of me BEACHES. WHY I DON'T CARE FOR THEM First Line: Associations: years of being ashamed/my sometimes Last Line: With me I might even let you teach me how to tread water BEATING HEAD First Line: I went to the psychiatrist and I explained to him that every BEDTIME STORY Poem Text First Line: Bed calls. I sit in the dark in the living room Last Line: Have invaded it searching for food BEDTIME STORY First Line: Bed calls. I sit in the dark in the living room Last Line: Have invaded it searching for food BELLGLORIA First Line: The ugly bark - tone girl has a pock - marked soul and one Last Line: In fashionable blinking for the eyeless needy mob BERNADETTE NEXT DOOR First Line: Bernadette her shrill terrified wind Last Line: I'm burning candles against you BESERK ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD First Line: These days fat pigeons coo Last Line: The phone ate my last coin BETWEEN HOT TOES & COOL RAIN First Line: Englassed in longing & stale cigarette stink Last Line: Of shoe leather. For the pause before the knock BEYOND THE LAKE OF MEMORIES First Line: Up on cherry blossom lane Last Line: Pop. You will come back to me and bless my heart BIG FOOT First Line: Sho 'nuff sizables BIRD EVIDENCE First Line: She-swan on water. Above a honking. The unkind Last Line: As rare as the pink pelican BLACK AGAINST THE NIGHT First Line: What's looked for is many bleeds ago Last Line: Besides. There ain't cash enuff BLACK BULLFIGHTER First Line: Played flamenco BLACK DUST First Line: To be dust %to be dust Last Line: And %just %blow %away Subject(s): Dust BLACK IRIS First Line: Undergoing ecstasy a woman sings and plays jazz piano Last Line: Such thoughts recreate the world %and this is good BLACK MADONNA First Line: Screaming legions/her children chase her down shame Last Line: Father, the crucifixion did not take Subject(s): Fetishes; Obsessions BLACK MAN ACCIDENTALLY KILLED HIMSELF First Line: Trying to protect his wife and daughter BLACK POET DEATH ATTICA 92A2687 First Line: Maybe if I had grown up white in tulsa Last Line: But snores and the blinking of the soul BLACK ROSE First Line: Bush roots go deep and briars climb twist snake Last Line: Into the labyrinth beyond her labia BLACK WOMAN'S HOLE First Line: She crawls in it for the only Last Line: It the world knew it would put her hole up for sale and %turn her out BLACK-HANDED CURSE First Line: May the sky widen between your eyes %and a storm twist across your thoughts Last Line: May a small rodent eat your last words BLUE GLASS First Line: My thighs open, release his face Last Line: What I see the world thru BLUE LADY THINGS First Line: Lavender platform shoes. A dying white camellia BLUE PERIOD First Line: Baby baby what I'm talking about is getting over BLUES FOR THE MAN ON SAX (1) First Line: The horn the horn blows BLUES FOR THE MAN ON SAX (2) First Line: Longsleep pooped out at the party, double duty got Last Line: Came from, a mystery. It pierced the clock and made %nighta permanent thing BLUES FOR THE MAN ON SAX (3) First Line: Reed-colored lips to mouthpiece Last Line: To put his bare ass up period BLUES OFF KEY First Line: In the last life she was certain. Thus Last Line: Of her glass and echoes of a slamming door BOJACK SAM DEALIN' MAN First Line: See evil speak evil do evil Last Line: Leaves behind a pair of shoes size 9 BONES First Line: Throw them %and they come up with the certainty Last Line: It's right down to them BONES OF CONTENTION First Line: He described you as a cracker battle axe Last Line: And he will never understand BOTTOM OUT BLUES First Line: You scoot along the bottom BOURGEOIS NEGRO ROOTS First Line: I thought I'd be a good goody - gather BRASS MONKEY GOSPEL First Line: Catch a light gal keep a light gal BREAST EXAMINATION First Line: In the shower naked Last Line: Wakes the eagle %I take flight BRIEF VISIT TO PARADISE First Line: No. He is not responsible for this fix %I'm in even if he Last Line: With the uproarious laughter of roses BROKEN CAR WINDOW First Line: Our shocked eyes pierce Last Line: Do it in bed like proper married folk BRUNO First Line: Washing six-month's worth of dirt & the devil off Last Line: Like my raggedy hand-to-mouth BRUTE STRENGTH First Line: Last night blonde spitfire angie dickinson beat steel-eyed Last Line: My first husband wasn't much. I could take %his best punch BUBBLE EYES DECLARES WAR First Line: Arms were taken up at avalon & manchester Last Line: I'd give something great back to my people BUDDHA BELLY First Line: The circle in the center of the hole Last Line: Dinner was tasty %who made noise BURNT First Line: Smog and the gray asthmatic non Last Line: And less 'tween my thighs BUT, RUBY MY DEAR Poem Text First Line: He hikes those narrow chords one more time Last Line: Of discordant fusion / scaling Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians BUTTAH First Line: Endless wobbles %when seen rear-view we sistuhs Last Line: And many have been reborn of it BWANA MOON First Line: The black frazzle I'm worn to writhes Last Line: He chirps like birds a flock of turds BY WATCHIN' DADDY I LEARN ABOUT MEN & STUFF First Line: After rising early for work Last Line: Few women speak the language of men CAFE SOCIETY First Line: Camel walks & monkey talks CANCER First Line: The jagged cutting of skin Last Line: A silent prayer %you get some rest now CAPTAIN JERKOFF AND LA GIOCONDA First Line: Every woman is a lesbian - overt or convert CASTING CALL First Line: Snow in the blood. My lover's coo Last Line: Unable to remember my name %on hiatus Subject(s): Job Hunting CASTING CALL (2) Poem Text First Line: Snow in the blood. My lover's coo Last Line: Peg me in the hole of kingfish Subject(s): Job Hunting CASTING CALL (2) First Line: Something about amos. He wore his hat like Last Line: Peg me in the hole of kingfish CHAIR AFFAIR First Line: The chair bites me, angrily I kick it Last Line: Says I, 'the word is hu(e) as in color + man' CHAIR AFFAIR (ALTERNATE VERSION) First Line: The chair bites me. Angrily I kick it Last Line: Chairs are the true plague of mankind' %--chairman mao CHANCE MUSIC First Line: Cultural felo-d-se Last Line: Pariah makes the white man rich CHAPTER 2 OF THE STORY First Line: The assistant librarian was an old white woman Last Line: Hating her more for that CHIP ON MY SHOULDER BELONGS TO HER First Line: In the pleasure of his knocking it off I see Last Line: Our new love on hold till %he lets go of her CHUCK MAN First Line: That loosiana swamp dog put some funny stuff Last Line: To work his mojo he lick my pearl to %feel it glow. Makes my hair grow CIVILIZED PLAGUE First Line: A friend and I were discussing the local scarcity Last Line: Rumored he has the virus CLOSING TIME First Line: A bouquet of promises withers in the grim Last Line: No arrival no return CLOWN MEDITATION First Line: I am unsure. I go about the endless dream Last Line: There be space without boundaries? CLOWN SHOW First Line: La lez says she's waited five years to meet me CO-STAR First Line: She liked his scenes best. He, his sephardic darkness, his bluesy Last Line: Mouth. At that moment she became brazen. He kissed back COFFEE First Line: Steam rises over my nose Last Line: To drink. It made you get blacker %and blacker COLD WATER CANYON First Line: The splash of bone cold reality COLLAGE Poem Text First Line: Summers / summers Last Line: Summers / summers Subject(s): Family Life; Summer COLLAGE First Line: Summers %summers %summers Last Line: Vitamin c tablets & cod liver oil %summers %summers %summers COLORISM First Line: He and I sat by poolside Last Line: Humph!' he snorted. 'how do %you think I feel?' CONFERENCE First Line: They cross the earth south to north east to west CONFESSIONS NOIRES First Line: I am afraid of telephones Last Line: I am afraid of the light %at the end of a poem COSMIC RAINBOW NIGGAH JAM First Line: Too soon in this noon of noons Last Line: Turning to steam inside their skins COUSIN MARY Poem Text First Line: Goes way back to the days/my father a young man Last Line: Her song to me across years Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians CREATURE OF TWO WORLDS First Line: Not gravity. The weight of worry Last Line: Not gravity. Love %weights me to earth CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR First Line: I am guilty of not earning enuff money to Last Line: And yes the world owes me CROAKERS First Line: On harlem avenue on gladys they're dunk off Last Line: Skidding into the crack of no return CURRENT EVENTS First Line: The welcoming committee Last Line: There's a hole in france where the %naked jani dance CURRENT EVENTS (2) First Line: The business of the dead is booming Last Line: Fresh off the griddle CURRENT EVENTS (3) First Line: He licks his lips Last Line: Yes, well, but isn't it drama of the highest order DANCER IN THE WINDOW First Line: Perform for the world may it knock at the door come in Last Line: She separates the cotton from the boll DANGEROUS SUBJECTS First Line: The hand under the skirt Last Line: Why the cookie was stolen & who got the last bite DARWINIAN EBB First Line: What was there to begin with Last Line: In which we were captured in the margins %and breathed one breath DAVID POLION First Line: An 11-year-old boy was fatally wounded one Last Line: As though I am his mother DAY OF REMEMBRANCE First Line: When you salt my wound, gentle hand DEAR LITTLE BOY First Line: In lipstick and nail enamel Last Line: Waiting to count your %night's take DEAR MAMA (2) First Line: You don't know or maybe you do Last Line: Hurts to swallow those old beaten borrowed green backs %whole %hurts to know %it'll hurt worse if yo DEAR MAMA (4) First Line: When did we become friends DEAR PETER PAN First Line: Your son really looks like you DEATH 211 First Line: He sits there at the bus stop DEATH 213 First Line: This time only one body on the divan Last Line: And this time, no savior Subject(s): Fetishes; Obsessions DEATH DON'T DRINK WATER First Line: Death don't like warm hands Last Line: Candy and has a peculiar sweetness all its own DEATH OF A FRIEND First Line: What he died of Last Line: He she they %pray DECOR First Line: Home: an assessment of town newsprint shelf paper Last Line: King size bed in bad need of change DECOR (2) First Line: Word processor digital clock books galore Last Line: It is time to revise history DEJA FAIT First Line: He sleeps in the exact same spot he slept in Last Line: Mouth echoing bitch DESERT MOTHER First Line: Under lava mud ash Last Line: Her crater runs deep a volcano %once thought extinct DEUCE OF CUPS First Line: The black would-be poet told me a story Last Line: To fill the cup with cum DICKSBORO REFLECTIONS First Line: The glass spider spins passion's web Last Line: Not what you do, who DID AND DONE First Line: Abandoned avenue, fog rolls in. A night in 1974 DINOSAUR SONNET First Line: Care critique custody & control Last Line: Beauty's most beastly most abhorrent crime DISCLOSURE First Line: My tattered fence stands upside down like Last Line: We twist out our obsessions on unkempt lawn DOCTOR SPIDER First Line: Has an office in beverly hills Last Line: Another fly caught in the web DOE EYES First Line: Unblinking. Dazed Last Line: Waitin' for words which, unlike the end of your world %never come DOG SUICIDE First Line: On the harbor freeway Last Line: Wondered if that dog knew something I didn't DOING BATTLE WITH THE WOLF First Line: I drip blood %on my way to and from work Last Line: Wolf howls and the roar of police sirens DOLLS First Line: I murdered my dolls DOLLS (2) First Line: Atop the toy chest blank blue eyes focus on infinity DOMINOES First Line: She breaks her back while he's Last Line: Frivolity of black men slammin' bones DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE First Line: Oh I tailed her thru beverly hills her ashen blonde locks Last Line: I spill coffee on the rug DR. MUNGO First Line: Poet to poet a rage score Last Line: Heard the hasty shuffle of your stagger %and am returning the call DREAM First Line: Gets up and walks Last Line: Air and crying to be %forgiven DREAM 1031 First Line: In terror I wake but can't rise Last Line: Someone has tiptoed into the room and has clicked off %the television set DREAM 1218 First Line: I snap out of my distraction and hurry from the Last Line: Remember the letters I forgot to mail yesterday DREAM 1225 First Line: Playing the central avenue tour guide, I say Last Line: By the time I make bail DREAM 1226 First Line: My slim pale blond lover fondles my locks as Last Line: The covers and watch the sunrise DREAM 1288 First Line: Walking barefooted thru the streets in a trance, I'm in my thin Last Line: I'll please come and do a reading DREAM 1319 First Line: I am in my father's house Last Line: I do so at once DREAM 1345 First Line: I wake to the report of hard-running water. My Last Line: Alone and still shouting DREAM 1812 First Line: Nude in bed %I raise my left thigh to pick at a troubling Last Line: Hmmmmm,' he says, 'the next time it gets hard, call me' DREAM 2610 First Line: The professor is explaining the Last Line: Bleeding in my ear DREAM 27 First Line: I do not like this coming of the white man' DREAM 28 First Line: The ace high avenue queen of shades Last Line: And awake to find them full Subject(s): Dreams; Sleep DREAM 3232 First Line: Globules of silver light recede Last Line: Second rain of storm-laden spring DREAM 4994 First Line: A chunk of my heart breaks away and floats off Last Line: I am much smaller than I remember DREAM 516 First Line: Witchin' hour ensues as I cruise a blues neighborhood Last Line: Am clutching the complete works of %william shakespeare DREAM 522 First Line: Young bloods got me riding in the car DREAM 5272 First Line: Manchild and lover in tow, I Last Line: Back into the sheets and buries his head %under the pillows DREAM 549 First Line: I leave the house thru the front door Last Line: Isn't it obvious?' I say DREAM 711 First Line: I appear at the desk and present my papers Last Line: Good,' he smiles, 'I was afraid you'd woken up' DREAM 731 First Line: My hair in braids, I am dressed in a cloth of rainbow Last Line: Singing in an unfamiliar tongue DREAM 820 First Line: Cracks and dust %in the room's subfusc light I become my shadow Last Line: Get up. I'm angry about that %too DREAM 924 First Line: The trip starts on the limitless freeway of my thoughts. The Last Line: I did not wake up today DREAMWALK: 1. First Line: You spring up pretty in the 50s if not quite pink Last Line: Know that god aka johnny will punish them when they grow up DREAMWALK: 3. First Line: There are, you know, certain names that are Last Line: The class among the badniks who destroy the future DREAMWALK: 4. First Line: Buzzy hive dream of honey - coated expectations Last Line: Out there for you but grasshoppers and deeper holes DREAMWALK: 5. First Line: You're too old to cherish that 33 rpm vinyl lp pop Last Line: Of music. That's strictly for paddies DREAMWALK: 6. First Line: When no one special is looking you escape into Last Line: Queen of sheba you are, condescend to come down DREAMWALK: 7. First Line: Fear drives you to tears and out of the Last Line: Hurry, you whisper, please hurry DREAMWALK: 8. First Line: They kicked you out of after - school charm Last Line: Into adulthood - alongside sam's roundtrip ticket to nam DRONE Poem Text First Line: I am a clerk Last Line: I clerk Subject(s): Office Employees; Clerks DRONE First Line: I am a clerk Last Line: I am a medical billing clerk %I am a clerk %I clerk Subject(s): Office Employees EASTER SUNRISE First Line: In black down the deserted avenue of god I trod Last Line: Bells the clang of bells and %crazed laughter EATER OF GOOD BOOKS First Line: At the table I am alone Last Line: Fat on the rich yet unfulfilling ECONOMICS OF SKIN First Line: Feeling-based ritual is shunned as is Last Line: Inside this poor person is a rich one %struggling to get out EDGE OF DAWN First Line: He checks in at midnight to complete his peace. Thoughts Last Line: Two words: pardon me EDUCATIONAL LAB COUNSELOR First Line: Our son's got math problems. His stepdad my Last Line: Of course we may be wrong EL HAJJ MALIK EL-SHABAZZ First Line: Yes. They have taken your tongue EMMETT TILL First Line: River jordan run red Last Line: And was carried forth to that promised land EMOTIONAL CON MEETS A VIRGINAL IDEAL First Line: Don't ask me where I've been Last Line: You wouldn't want to pay the price %of my confession END OF THE CENTURY First Line: Social revolt has been numbed by Last Line: Even get out the gate ENEMY First Line: It's been one hellified snot of days ESPANTALEPSIS First Line: No one asks after me Last Line: Into this lean and lonely shade ESSAY ON LANGUAGE (1) First Line: This began somewhere Last Line: This ends and begins here ESSAY ON LANGUAGE (2) First Line: Before slavery %my people-tongue (drum) was sure. There were no excesses. Last Line: It be about bones doin' somethang ESSAY ON LANGUAGE (3) First Line: Lately I make sacrifice Last Line: Death is to be fluent in them all ESSAY ON LANGUAGE (4) First Line: The question of meaning always arises Last Line: But ignorance is to the bone ESSAY ON LANGUAGE (5) First Line: Logopathy/body jabber Last Line: Lift me thru my skin ETHERIDGE First Line: He slept thru his ascension of the northern latitudes Last Line: His blaze interrupted the sermon and singed the robes ETHNOGRAPHS First Line: Kin to the dubbing yaw of a galleon Last Line: Everything including the oink EYES BLEED PICTURES; TALES OF A BLACK ADVENTURER First Line: My eyes bleed pictures %he and I FALSE SPRING First Line: An uncanny raucous chirp chirp is heard Last Line: Even the trees are deceived FAST EDDIE First Line: Hair shaved to the scalp like poboys do Last Line: Ever - and - always, red's girl FAT First Line: Over skunk, laughter and dago red, me and kika were jawing Last Line: She said gently and fired the first in a long series of menthol %cigarettes FEBRUARY 11TH 1990 Poem Text First Line: This year the leaves turn red green black Last Line: Having spent my greediness in a ritual of joy. Subject(s): Brutus, Dennis FEBRUARY 11TH 1990 First Line: This year the leaves turn red green black Last Line: Having spent my greediness in a ritual of joy FEMALE First Line: Friend girl says 'trick a man into love' Last Line: According to her definition %I'm not FIGUEROA First Line: Vamp 1970 south on motel row FIGURES OF SPEECH First Line: The squeeze-on %last time the window was broken out Last Line: Is meaningless now %has the value of zip FILM 739 First Line: Naked. Before the camera %his eyes FIRESONG 1964 First Line: In his yellowing years quang duc Last Line: Bursts from his flesh to rush the indigo FIRST DAY OF SPRING 1985 First Line: Lust for liberty sprouts seventeen dead Last Line: Who remembers the tongue of the man who has no tongue FLAWED REPETITIONS First Line: Coming here the last time I thought Last Line: How many stabs before I pierce his skull FLIGHT MEDITATION First Line: When heart people are Last Line: My time, my time, where is my time? FLIGHT OF THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR (2) First Line: Mass migration began in the 50s Last Line: But in its own FLIGHT OF THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR (3) First Line: Over ham & eggs they jaw about how it was FOR ME WHEN I AM MYSELF First Line: The enhanced storage of mother-fat Last Line: To hold us here, now %just like this FOR ONCE First Line: That night he woke sudden Last Line: And tolerate the stone FOR THE GIRL WITH CEREBRAL PALSY First Line: You dive into a spasm and twist your sweetness Last Line: Hands/jagged pieces of tissue too frail %even for tears FOR THE SAKE OF THE COOL First Line: The magician stumbles in Last Line: For the sake of FOUR BEAUTIES First Line: The sex technician Last Line: Blood, having reserved a crypt for recreation, rest and %resurrection FOUR MEN First Line: Just now it was summer FRICK FRO First Line: Oh so negrodocious Last Line: And the prevalence of violets FRICK FRO (2) First Line: Poverty is its own calamity Last Line: Meant love for us all? FRICK FRO (3) First Line: Smell the sweat & suede of the tapdaddies swilling Last Line: Word - warriors snake dancing in the drum FROZEN IN THE BEAM OF HEADLIGHTS/EYES ON HOLD Last Line: I am left to face it alone GATHERING BONES First Line: Comate. Fallen. Lost. Ago GEORGE 1914 First Line: Twinight %boxed in by shadow. In the corner he dukes it out %with shades Last Line: I howl to bring back the dead GEORGE 1990 First Line: He got nearer and nearer Last Line: The nearer he got the more self-contained GEORGE DEATH ANNIVERSARY First Line: Papa do you hear the grass grow Last Line: To fill your absence GET RICH QUICK First Line: He nurtured the seeds, then we bought some GHETTO MOMENT First Line: He's there, sits very still barely breathing waiting for my Last Line: A passel of young boys GHOST OF A DANCE First Line: It was one of those moments when she wanted Last Line: It was more than she could stand GHOST OF MANIC SILENCE First Line: Yes, camus said %death does Last Line: To seize my final solitude GIRLFRIENDS First Line: We are faced with the irrefutable analyses Last Line: We write therefore we are GIVE ME TIME First Line: Give me jazz afternoon Last Line: Even jazz can't go there GOD WANT HAS POSSESSED US First Line: His disquiet grates %the ringing up of zeros GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN First Line: Gone real gone the good die gone Last Line: At my grave dying to get in GONWANDALAND First Line: Fortune cookie say: there will always be GOSSIP First Line: She calls me up and tells me GOT LOTS OF LUMPS ON ME First Line: That's where mama used that tree limb when Last Line: Don't be silly. That's just how my head is made HAITIAN NIGHT First Line: No names -- please Last Line: Cavern of skulls & bones in the cool rain of jungle dust and%light HAND DANCE First Line: This is the ritual of he hand becoming Last Line: Here. A forest of hands where the only fauna %are my eyes HE TAKES HER TO THE MOVIES First Line: At the walk-in concession counter his Last Line: After the movies %they hold hands HE TELLS ME THERE WILL BE NOTHING Last Line: Nothing to burn HE TOOK HIS LOVE IN PARTS First Line: Hid her stark white teeth in the sugar cannister. He Last Line: Except those elusive eyes HEAVY DAUGHTER BLUES First Line: The t.V. Is teaching my children hibakusha HECUBA ON SUNSET (1) First Line: I step into the bus into her eyes HECUBA ON SUNSET (2) First Line: I went to the well to wash my toe Last Line: What time old witch HEEBEEGEEBEES First Line: Are transmitted by closets Last Line: Live for 48-hours on the rims of dreams HERITAGE First Line: The dakota man came to the party Last Line: They were the same HIGH TIME LOVERS First Line: So they never had anything together HIS COMMENTS AFTER HER HANGING First Line: A few days after the workshop Last Line: And you know, she wasn't a bad looking woman %not at all HIS EYES INTO THE ROOM First Line: Shattering silence a gun full of bullets Last Line: I've played this scene too many times %I must like it HIS HAIR First Line: I am ever picking it from my body Last Line: And time to time they make their way %into my mouth HIS OLD FLAME LADY VENICE First Line: So they kicked him off the beach Last Line: His life, that woman, venice %she had it all HIS ONE AND ONLY First Line: Your daddy and I eloped, mama confessed forty years Last Line: Compliments of stork limousine and diaper service HIS WOMAN HIS PARTY HIS PRICE First Line: It was another great party Last Line: A man in severe pain. A man bawlin' HOLDING THE SIDEWALK DOWN First Line: It is an american universal peculiar to certain black men HOLLYWOOD THEOLOGY First Line: The lions didn't eat enuff christians Last Line: On second thought, I'll follow mister chan it's safer HOLLYWOOD ZEN First Line: Anticipation as good as actuality Last Line: The rhythm of life is the run of the jogger HOMAGE TO AN OLD WHITE LADY GROWN ILL First Line: She had it all. She wants it back Last Line: She sees herself HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHTS First Line: I find it at 5 am in the cincinnati rain Last Line: Sleep until his blood wakes you HOW DOES IT HURT First Line: Tell me, how does it hurt Last Line: Show me, where does it hurt HOW TO FIX A BAD MAN HEX First Line: Creole mama say get a pint of whiskey and 4 quinine HUH First Line: Watcha gonna do girl HYDROQUEEN First Line: Chilly chilly the air bleeds drama Last Line: She has learned all there is to know about the cycles of %water I AIN'T YO EARTHMAMA First Line: Boogers are not my forte Last Line: We can relax in the cool thereafter I AIN'T YO EARTHMAMA (2) First Line: Pardon me, but you're standing on my stomach Last Line: So quit stickin' your tarzan in my jane I DIED WITH THE FIRST BLOW & WAS REBORN WRONG First Line: You stranger, you call yourself my friend Last Line: You! Stranger. You call yourself my champion I IMAGINE THE ANGELS OF RAGE First Line: This is the year of the thirty - nine Last Line: And the endless rain of crosses I LIVE FOR MY CAR First Line: Can't let go of it. To live is to drive. To have it function Last Line: To drive is to live I REMEMBER ROMANCE IN THE CHEVY GRAVEYARD First Line: The night was cold the naugahyde was cold Last Line: Until it burst into a shower of lost names I USED TO BE SO FRANK First Line: She yelped and bayed Last Line: When there was nothing bad outside %trying to get in I.S. IN THE PURPLE FELT HAT (2) First Line: The kiss taken in shadow I.S. IN THE PURPLE FELT HAT (3) First Line: Walnut corridors & double dead-bolted doors %a IDENTIFYING MARKS First Line: Raised %black mole 3/4 inch in diameter on nape of left cocoa breast IMITATION OF DEATH First Line: Here sit I at the womb of my desire here Last Line: At the site of excavation. Hauled skyward %to be resentenced IMPERIAL HIGHWAY EXIT HOME (2) First Line: Eight years ago down the south end IN A NEAR EMPTY ROOM First Line: Peach-on-peach walls and linen tablecloths Last Line: Days to keep themselves in notes IN THAT OTHER FANTASY WHERE WE LIVE FOREVER Poem Text First Line: We were never caught Last Line: When you split you took all the wisdom / and left me the worry IN THE KITCHEN MY POTATOES ARE POLEMICAL First Line: English %the scab across my people-tongue Last Line: If I put my head in the pot INDIAN SUMMER First Line: We suffer heat %lying down Last Line: Wish there was something else %I could take off INTERVIEWEE First Line: Clean crisp banana shirt INTRUDER First Line: I have broken and entered poetry's house. Where have they Last Line: Unclean/unholy. And there is nothing here worthy of theft INVITATION TO A GUNFIGHTER First Line: You rode into town on a mighty tall horse, durango Last Line: And leave you face up in the sun ISM First Line: Tired I count the ways in which it determines my life Last Line: When I would speak of other things IT SHOULD'VE BEEN A RAINY DAY First Line: But sun was electric bright in the razzling blue JACKET First Line: He has it on again JASS MAN First Line: Fo him all womens ho JAZZ WAZZ First Line: My heart in my ear his baby we need to talk jazz Last Line: Each time we pretend you are never on my mind JAZZ WHINE First Line: I was reborn in a massive trunk cascading forward Last Line: Till my eyes began to bleed and I could no longer find my ears JERRY 1965 First Line: Being with him is being accepted/his wife Last Line: When hope went sex followed JERRY 1969 First Line: Yes I promised I'd follow in a month or two JOB HUNTER First Line: Ridin' the newsprint want-ad range Last Line: And death is an elevator on its way %down to the lobby Subject(s): Job Hunting JOE TWO WINES First Line: My liver hurts. The doctors say ...' JOSEPHINE YOUR BIG MOUTH First Line: Was what was done got you in trouble JUICE MONEY First Line: Looking for meaning I motor in circles towards Last Line: And they say good black don't crack %still arguing god JUMP SONG First Line: Put on your white bone sneakers Last Line: You meet your maker JUNE STREET First Line: Nights we cruise the lush dark rich beyond reach JUST ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD SUMMER First Line: High noon on mercury JUST BEFORE GEORGE RISES First Line: Fever consumes him Last Line: Here we sit in his final hours %suspended KATHY (2) First Line: Rattle those chains restless spirit of Last Line: Some loves die hard KING CREOLE First Line: They gather in graceland to lick your bones KOANS First Line: If a lone black man Last Line: And is always happy KOANS (2) First Line: How does a nation %repay the debt Last Line: With no heart see LA DOLCE MORTE First Line: It was a particularly tasty last bite LADY OF THE CANS First Line: The pungent putrid stink of america's bung hole LAINPAY UTHTRAY First Line: Reality arrives at 7 a.M. And circles the block Last Line: Fits neatly between perforations LANDING PLACE First Line: Purple rad and gold sands endless stretching Last Line: I'm not like her at all LAS TURISTAS NEGRAS GRANDE First Line: My feet kiss the pavement on castillo Last Line: Wind against the rocks %sea sucking the shore LATE 80S PARTY First Line: The dude who opens the door is as thin as Last Line: Really not where it's at LATE BROADCAST NEWS First Line: Six black men were killed and more than a Last Line: Be subdued by such a magnitude of force LATE ONE NIGHT First Line: Two weeks before her obituary appeared I was sitting Last Line: Show but not before I cop some of them ribs LAYING DOWN BLUES First Line: Sometimes I get the blues and want to lay down Last Line: Get up before the mirror. Force a grin LETTER TO MY OLDER SISTER First Line: She died before christening and, therefore Last Line: And if you can't be kind, please, be fair. %yours LETTER TO MY OLDER SISTER (2) First Line: Dear georgiana Last Line: It is I scratching against this silence LEVELS OF MEANING First Line: A woman burns. The woman in the house burning Last Line: The woman everyone fears because she's made of fire LIBRARY First Line: Walking his halls -- a wonder Last Line: Reads love never found LIFE AS A CARTOON First Line: (you can't use that phrase %someone's already made it fa-fa-fa-famous) Last Line: I'm cut, I bleed ink LIFE AS A CARTOON (2) First Line: (penned in a multicultural rainbow - Last Line: Again!!! Hohohohoho LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT First Line: Before boxing quit him, papa was a golden gloved Last Line: Bolt splintered and the hope bled from busted knuckles LIKE LOVE First Line: We're strugglin' to have meaning yet avoid Last Line: A burglar over a pair of shoes our days spent as %carelessly as pennies LIKE LOVE (2) First Line: They could be heard thru the walls Last Line: Curtaining the wall between them as he slams the door LIVE FAST DIE SLOW ANIMALS First Line: Erotogenic sensory pits LORD BILLY'S WOMAN First Line: He loved her on her glossy surface LOS ANGELES BORN & BURIED First Line: Hear the automoblie coffins? They drive crazy drive wild LOVE BANDIT First Line: I'm in a place where there are no thieves Last Line: It shimmers in the center %of a barren heart LOVE BANDIT (2) First Line: Sister, he says, you wear the color of our blood Last Line: Desert of never having touched yet forever twined LOVIN' BREAKFAST BLUES First Line: I want cream in my coffee, baby Last Line: It tastes so doggone good to me LUZ First Line: I remember you the way one remembers a bad meal. This Last Line: Who read and wrote %in public LYRIC First Line: White-eyes wave across aisle Last Line: A drama done in clap, limp pricks and midnight calls to %mama MACHOSPITAL First Line: The child screams. Screams for mother. Screams Last Line: They're precious, all of them, is how I look at it -- %service MAINTENANCE ENGINEER PART TIME First Line: After the long day's hustle, papa returned Last Line: But first stop - sinkers, hot chocolate and smiles MALE ORDER CATALOG First Line: Polished cotton hawaiian green & purple-brown print MAN BEHIND THE WOMAN First Line: His tongue pursues me thrugh a wake-sleep Last Line: Lumbering along hollywood avenue, I seek the savior MAN WHO SAW HALLEY'S COMET THE LAST TIME AROUND First Line: It is said the light finds us MAN WITH THE HOUSE ON THE SHORE ATOP THE CLIFFS IN GHANA MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE First Line: Jackrabbit fever: he wants to fuck, she wants to discuss Last Line: All the women fainted MARRIAGE OF BODIES First Line: Hungry in dark city Last Line: It is tale told by the watts prophets signifying MASTECTOMY Poem Text First Line: The fall of / velvet plum points and umber aureolae Last Line: Sweet sweet mama you taste so Subject(s): Breast Cancer MASTECTOMY First Line: The fall of %velvet plum points and umber aureolae Last Line: Sweet sweet mama you taste so MEAN MACHINE First Line: Eight point star-faceted lasers MEANWHILE IN MANHATTAN First Line: Bad sushi %the future takes a bullet. On the a-train up from Last Line: My name is more than he'll ever know MEDIOCRE MADONNA First Line: When god passed out the baby fat MESSAGE FROM XANADU First Line: The henna-haired waif appears in a spinster's dream Last Line: Dear darling die famous or don't die MESSAGE FROM XANADU (2) First Line: Never use your spirit name Last Line: They will have you assassinated by pianos MESSAGE FROM XANADU (2) First Line: Send all dispatches Last Line: Won't be able to stope when you hit %a dangerous curve %theywill have you assassinated by pianos MESSENGER'S LAIR First Line: A black blonde serves refreshment to kink - haired men Last Line: Dream - whipped sleeper scuffling to shake the unholy ghost MEXICO ENTERED THE DOOR WITH HIM ON THE WIND First Line: Came up the stairs and talked to me for a few minutes Last Line: I've been to mexico before MIDAS TOUCH First Line: (mable mable set the fable don't forget the %red hot peppers) MIDNIGHT CARRIES ME SOUTH ALONG ILLUSION AVENUE First Line: Used to know a man who sold it hot. A woman who knew Last Line: For the cause and thick lips pressed %to the window MISS JONES Poem Text First Line: She was the great baby sitter - tall dignified Last Line: There was a joy about her I had to be a woman / to understand MISS JONES First Line: She was the great baby sitter - tall dignified MISS NATTY ANN First Line: Up central avenue thirty years gone Last Line: A virgin niggah gal's slit, yes suh!' MISTAH MOUSE First Line: A refined lady-of-color was terrified of vermin Last Line: And stay dead,' she said MISTER CLARK First Line: In red velvet drapes a gallery of wanted posters MIZ SAMBO AND THE TIGERS First Line: Scenes unreel: the brass rail, parisian room, lobby inn MOANIN' GROANIN' BLUES First Line: When I get up in the mornin' Last Line: Still weak yet strong enough to fight MOJAVE WINTER First Line: Precise attention drawn to bone Last Line: Now she vanishes with a breath of acacia MOON LAYING ON HER SIDE First Line: Value is as value does Last Line: The third element of creation MORNING First Line: He sleeps late he sleeps dead as he sleeps he MORNING WIDOW'S SONG First Line: I moan lovejoy. I moan low. The urge too strong Last Line: I makes my bed today and my blues tomorrow MORNINGSIDE PARK First Line: It is father's day. I go to visit pop Last Line: The weight of my love MOTEL First Line: Salacious tongues of neon lick cheap plastic shades MOTH First Line: Brushing up against his bearded cheek Last Line: Flies into him/fries MOTHER OF THE THIN LIE First Line: I have wed and bed your son MOTHER TAYLOR First Line: An oatmeal mulatta MOTHER THE FLESH First Line: Has no logic %knows no reason Last Line: The flesh forgives everything MOUNTAINS ENTRAILS CURLING DOWN AND OUT THE HOLE ... First Line: They never have anything bad to say about you. Nothing but MR. LOPEZ First Line: In german class they used to laugh behind his back Last Line: But at that time I was too dense %to get the joke MR. WALTER First Line: She calls to tell me our old associate Last Line: I guess, she said MS. PAC MAN Poem Text First Line: Video fever comes late. I am found Last Line: But don't Subject(s): Video Games MS. PAC MAN First Line: Video fever comes late. I am found Last Line: Will put me over %but don't Subject(s): Video Games MY DADDY BE A BABY First Line: He sits propped up in the giant crib Last Line: Tell her he comin' at last MY ENLARGED HEART First Line: An avaricious eater of oxygen Last Line: My flow of blood is uncontrolled %wild palpitations MY SHOW First Line: To watch requires being home religiously Last Line: Some trash is good trash NATURAL HABITAT OF THINGS THAT BITE First Line: Cold places %beneath sheets Last Line: In her stomach as he walks away NEGATIVE PORTIONS First Line: Sunlit edges of half dreams Last Line: Where my heart used to be there's a hambone NEGRO HISTORY 281 First Line: She was flattered to be invited to perform on campus. There Last Line: No idea what he had meant and dismissed it as something %cultural NERUDA First Line: Few quiet hours Last Line: Note found in cantonese fortune cookie: %neruda slept here NEW LEAF First Line: Her lungs emptied out fear. They were black, classic unhealthy Last Line: I stare at it. Go over to the plant. Grab the leaf. Break it off NIGGER'S VOICE FEELS CURIOUSLY COOL First Line: Your favorite authors never knew the thou of you Last Line: Hang yourself from the stacks NO MALICE IN MOVIELAND First Line: In the business I can't get the business Last Line: Socks go up and down NO WOMAN'S LAND First Line: They trample on my sensitivity Last Line: No white flag of truce %no surrender NOBODY WANTS TO KNOW MY NAME Poem Text First Line: No not skin graham cracker crust Last Line: I'm not here. I'm out of touch / ears? NOBODY WNATS TO KNOW MY NAME First Line: No not skin but graham cracker crust Last Line: I'm not here. I'm out of touch %ears? NOCTURNE First Line: Running in place %my tongue has grown strong and hard Last Line: Or the darkness before the dark NODOMANIA (3) First Line: No getting in on the ground floor Last Line: Wished I'd been born a boy NOISE First Line: Slake in decibels. Take me up Last Line: Gunshots entering %wounding NOISE (2) First Line: Sanctimonious cacaphonifiers richochet on stucco Last Line: He eats all my silences NOSOMANIA First Line: Lawyer fever doctor flu Last Line: All the philosophy I need NOSOMANIA (2) First Line: The news reports about health professionals Last Line: Wondering how one lived without touching NOTES OF A CULTURAL TERRORIST First Line: Angry, angry for days years decades. Going to Last Line: These are my fake pearls. I have no real ones NOTES OF A CULTURAL TERRORIST (2) First Line: After the war the war begins the war goes on Last Line: Don't look me too long in the eyes NOVEMBER'S SONG: 1. First Line: I am planetary with sugar & double Last Line: As I gather each trace of wronged breath NOVEMBER'S SONG: 2. First Line: A nesting starling arcs across Last Line: As black as my licorice heart O.D.'S FOR LIP CLIP & STYLE First Line: The bottom line shapes the snake of a scalp Last Line: The rest he covered with hair OBITUARIES First Line: I always read them looking for cause Last Line: That's happened to marriageable females %since the veil ODE FOR DONNY HATHAWAY Poem Text First Line: And then there are the one-hit zombies Last Line: That too sweet gospel splash Subject(s): Music & Musicians ODE FOR DONNY HATHAWAY First Line: And then there are the one-hit zombies Last Line: That too sweet gospel splash OF AN ABSENCE First Line: His silence would've been manna. Just to be together enuff Last Line: How things have gone OF APES AND MEN First Line: As we posed around the appetizers, drinks snugged to our lips Last Line: He rose and abruptly left the table leaving me with my mouth %open OF NO FEATHER First Line: But you see, when we discuss birds Last Line: Don't play with my pee-pee, mommy. I don't play with %yours OFFERING OF PAWS First Line: I was choking her %she begged for mercy Last Line: One with a fire. One who hunts for pleasure instead of game. %one to go home with OFFICE First Line: There the time clock's feverish ticks Last Line: Intense focus on small things %keeps sane Subject(s): Office Employees OFFICE POLITICS First Line: The white boss / stops at my desk to see how I'm doing Subject(s): Office Employees; Clerks OFFICE POLITICS First Line: The white boss %stops at my desk to see how I'm doing Last Line: And goes back to work Subject(s): Office Employees OLD BLACK LADY NEXT DOOR, WALKING First Line: She walks walking OLD CHOKE First Line: We play hand games while daddyboy waits for Last Line: I feel his grasp OLD WHITE MAN First Line: Was leaving the doctor's office Subject(s): Social Problems ON HEAVEN STREET AT ONE A.M. First Line: His mouth liquid this glitter night beneath stars Last Line: These eyes in the sky are lights from stars long burnt-out %long gone cold ON THAT STUFF THAT NEVER BEEN LONG ENUFF FOR NO DAMN BODY First Line: Chain braids ON THE ASPHALT First Line: Cars on avenue Last Line: And wish he's never been born ON THE OTHER END OF MELROSE First Line: Always it is dusk Last Line: All questions go unanswered %always it is dusk ON THE RIGHTEOUS BADMOUTH First Line: If I must be insulted do it like a mestizo Last Line: If you must put it in my ear - lubricate ON THE TRAIN First Line: He's the last train in the station Last Line: And for dessert, souls ONCE MORE First Line: Watching him smile at my morena face Last Line: The cream, the blood, my brooding ONE OF A MILLION First Line: Plainclothed cops chase a half - naked Last Line: On the sand like sun- fried adobe bricks ONE WHO CAN First Line: Morning. He sleeps a dead sleep Last Line: Goes on the one who can %does OUTFIT First Line: He hid it right beneath my ass OUTSIDE MY SPHERE First Line: I imagine him the still unknown, my teen first love Last Line: No green boy can survive in my world of stormy white swirls PACE SETTER First Line: Baby is it in the stars? Did you descend to earth Last Line: Come true? The jungle jivin' hoo juju or am I in for the %royal screw PIGGING OUT First Line: At the restaurant we sit down to wine Last Line: We eat until our smiles return %until fat and happy POEM FOR PAUL - JULY 1975 First Line: This night I write a psalm POET AFTER SURGERY First Line: He keeps falling to pieces Last Line: We lost his penis in west covina POETRY LESSON NUMBER ONE First Line: Cleveland and them hung hung out in that watts cafe used to be POETRY LESSON NUMBER THREE First Line: Solikeman have you read this cat's stuff Last Line: Afterwards I go and look it up in the unabridged %while he's snoring POETRY LESSON NUMBER TWO First Line: At the party I was asked to share my work as fledgling Last Line: And I finally understood his way of saying %my work lacked %originality POST-MODERN POUNDING First Line: I am tired of trafficking the long sizzling grid Last Line: I beat my head. I beat me head POW/MIA First Line: Head in her hands, eyes dry, the reluctant songsmith Last Line: Prisoner of words missing in actuality PRANCING IN MY SLEEP First Line: A woman a worker a black Last Line: The only danger left is %turning off the light PREDETERMINATION First Line: For scarcity of marijuana on the streets and in Last Line: Even when tain't so PREFACE TO A TWENTY VOLUME SPASM First Line: Dreadfall. Nightly I've come to anticipate the way Last Line: Finished, the sonofabear winked PRISONER OF LOS ANGELES (3) First Line: Bars of black flesh on celluloid Last Line: For failure to believe PROPAGANDA First Line: In this hell %my skin PROSODIA CENTO: MORPHIA SPEAKS First Line: Silence emerges as boundaries %and having Last Line: Color is a language %otherwise, I could have been anyone I wanted PROVE IT WHY DON'T YOU First Line: Fox in the hen house shoo fox shoo Last Line: Good hard thangs grow in tight wet places PROVISOS First Line: Hit it three licks and Last Line: Than mounting for the ride PRUNE SPOON JUNE First Line: This peculiar summer we stroll the boardwalk Last Line: Too busy fighting to stay out of mine PSEUDO DICKINSONIAN CENTO BLUES First Line: To some extent Last Line: Bad money bad love scuttle bugs & cracked ceilings Q & A First Line: What do you say to the dead Last Line: Soon, is what you say when you can't say. Soon QUEEN OF SINKING SAND First Line: Stone of my crown carries me down QUESTION OF BLOOD First Line: Arises on the ward QUOTH THE RAVEN First Line: The room, coolly luminous, a frayed pop-culture rag open Last Line: That door, baby, I still hear it slammin' RAGE REVIVIFIED First Line: Bones bearing the weight of bones Last Line: Bash the merciless with algae - covered stones RAPPING WITH OPPORTUNITY First Line: I sit at the desk Last Line: I'll kill him and hide his body %under my desk RAYMOND AND ROMANCE First Line: The bed of cries is neatly made. Sun - drenched sheets taut Last Line: And all the banks have been robbed REFUGEE FROM VACAVILLE First Line: Isolation %therapy/strapped down on the cement slab Last Line: He picks women willing to warden REGIONS OF DESERTS First Line: I walk thru the eye of sun Last Line: Settled in the sand of its past %my skull grins REGURGITATIONS First Line: He is rotting on the roadside Last Line: Will become his children REQUIEM FOR A NEST Poem Text First Line: The winged thang built her dream palace Last Line: And created a hatchery for her spawn / not knowing all were doomed Subject(s): Birds' Nests RERUN First Line: So tired of living close to the bone RERUN (2) First Line: Neither top nor bottom RETURN TO DJERASSI First Line: Up skyline off bear gulch & solitude Last Line: Is the time I create RETURNED TO THE POPULATION First Line: The narcomic rhythm of the crosstown bus REVERSAL FOR THE NINE OF SPADES First Line: It is the danger of the boy becoming a man REVISITING FEAR AND MEMPHIS First Line: We gather in that place that speaks the having been Last Line: Whosoever put their blood in this soil, raise thy standard REVISITING THE WOOD First Line: Palms and telephone poles nod Last Line: And breaks the seal ROACHES First Line: We kids used to pop 'em with matches on the back porch RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS First Line: A half hour before the advance of sun Last Line: I do as god wills over and again %I be as sparrow RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS: 1. First Line: A half hour before the advance of sun Last Line: Three of them are cracked RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS: 2. First Line: Of little use to vampires or leeches Last Line: Of what feather are you? RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS: 3. First Line: In this dream I've just moved into a large collective household Last Line: Is what healed alone healed well? RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS: 4. First Line: We plan to join the gym on an annual basis. My favorite Last Line: Subculture freakazoids RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS: 5. First Line: Inadvertently, a data error entered in the statement path Last Line: The mystery of the soul is the knowing there is one RON NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS: 6. First Line: Lately, whenever I run by the post office I see the same two Last Line: I be as the sparrow RULES First Line: Walk on the inside away from the curb SACRED HISTORY OF THE GONE First Line: Fade to rose Last Line: And all will fade to rose SALVATION WAX First Line: Ram's blood Last Line: Divest me of the shackles of my hands SAN ANSELMO 1966 First Line: I have no name for the beauty I saw there SAN DIEGO First Line: The light is like this Last Line: I pick sand stones %to carry home SAPPHIRE AS ARTIST IN THE WORLD First Line: The work such woman does in the world works Last Line: The profound stubborn belief in the absolute importance of her %vision SCIENCE OF IMMORTALITY First Line: Combative movement is watched measured charted & graphed SCRATCH ME First Line: Summer %beached again. I hate being beached. The affirmation of my SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS First Line: This sargasso muddied with the blood Last Line: His names for my breasts SECOND CLASS ANGEL First Line: There's a part of heaven Last Line: Is merely the non-reflective neon of god's %corporate boardroom SECRET TONGUE OF THE GONE First Line: Squiggles divine the passage Last Line: One foot tap dancing SELF-IMMOLATION First Line: It takes a peculiar kind of anger Last Line: Then come smoke %then come flame SENORA MOSQUITO First Line: She winds her way into our darkness Last Line: And now so do I SESSIONS First Line: Doctor asked me if I had any sexual fantasies. I told him I Last Line: Really need a doctor after all, now that I've finally found a %decent job SEX AND POLITICS IN FAIRYLAND First Line: Rose red from across the tracks does Last Line: She is assured resurrection by the local %sorcerer who offers happy endings %at a discount SHARON First Line: Baby sis ran away from home in the 70's. We don't talk SHE'S THERE AMONG THE NOTES AWAITING TRANSLATION First Line: A language easily misunderstood SHIT WORKER IN GENERAL First Line: I do good things for the good dead Last Line: I keep the minutes of their meetings %and collect the dues SIDEWALK First Line: Whenever I arrive you're there waiting Last Line: Pot-holed by the rush of rain water from gutters overflowed SIDEWALK SHEIKS, HOLLYWOOD 1981 First Line: Backgammon afternoons Last Line: Or please miss can you move your car? SIGNATURES (1) First Line: She quick-fried and stewed the rabbit SIGNATURES (2) First Line: On the molding board SIGNATURES (3) First Line: I decline a visit to the fourth mesa SILVER SATIN NIGGAH RIDES First Line: Together they cruised thru beverly hills Last Line: But he sold us out cheap SKIN First Line: I have itched everywhere possible SKULL RECKONING First Line: I break bitter heart, lift out the earth/my pain Last Line: My eyes fry like eggs SMALL TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER First Line: Mama, what is clouds Last Line: They real mad then. Theys %real mad SNEAKER First Line: He comes home in his black leather biker jacket, the Last Line: Is careful not to be seen SOCIOPOLITICAL ABUSE First Line: We are not into living, this tomb a home Last Line: Then sacrificed SOCIOPOLITICAL ABUSE (2) First Line: In the bathroom the blood comes Last Line: Instead of another in a long series of uh - ohs SOME OF US First Line: Are found hanging Last Line: None of us die laughing SOME SUSPECT ADVICE First Line: To understate. He tells me less is better SOMEONE'S BROUGHT IN FRESH CUTTINGS SOMETHING IN MY THROAT First Line: Eventually it will cause trouble Last Line: And on the other %keep it shut SON OF A First Line: He came in looking for a mama Last Line: I makes bitches...Bitches...Bitches SONG OF ONE First Line: Life was a spiral staircase on which Last Line: Long enough to compose a coda for our oratorio SONNET: 35 First Line: Boooooooo. Spooky ripplings of icy waves. This Last Line: Usta be young usta be gifted - still black SONNET: 36 First Line: Thin boy no grin boy to eat is a sin boy Last Line: Razor sharp spadings into solid inky soil SONNET: 37 First Line: Childlove. We're estranged o'er wicked hours Last Line: But do grave sleeping, you - the daunting SONNET: 38 First Line: Something in here distaff flies Last Line: Doth he who caged the beast cage me? SONNET: 39 First Line: No zzzs louise, dere's a virusconspirus Last Line: Too soon to quit too late to cry SONNET: 40 First Line: Communications/breakhead. I was 'sposed to but Last Line: Are we large and in charge yet? SONNET: 41 First Line: Every death a haunting/deep sleep of word Last Line: And pens her book of stone SONNET: 42 First Line: Uncanny. A gash in the superstructure somewhere Last Line: Giggles uncontrollably SONNET: 43 First Line: I am listening for your footfalls, life! Last Line: Soaks the earth SONNET: 44 First Line: Brewing bathwater for wine she rises from the flaming Last Line: Yet scholarly file. Desperate for a drop SONNET: 45 First Line: I do deep paper poopoo. Rebellious bowels and Last Line: How long and how much you swallow SONNET: 46 First Line: Blood - splashed leaves cling to a porous moon - soaked walk Last Line: Once industry fails and a mean prosperity hurries south SONNET: 47 First Line: My adolescent fatherland is plagued by fear's outbreak Last Line: To her lips, consumes ash for nourishment SONNET: 48 First Line: Marginal survivors of abuse by the savages in control Last Line: Righteous rage of our split millennialism SONNET: 49 First Line: My cash - starved seducer with blueviolet skin Last Line: Hoping the other knows the sideway up SONNET: 50 First Line: The script calls for mock close up Last Line: Hollywood was the revoluti0n SONNET: 51 First Line: In my last incarnation I inoculated myself Last Line: To discover my children did not know me SONNET: 52 First Line: Dearest cousin Last Line: By these betrayals these giddy fingers SONNET: 53 First Line: Dearest cousin Last Line: Scribe quilling this loonytoon history SONNET: 54 First Line: Dearest cousin Last Line: One - palm island dwells no such beast as joy SONNET: 56 First Line: Coffee bar meditation: almost human Last Line: Niggah - flavored boos for heavy waftings ahead SONNET: 57 First Line: Mid - nightmare, this warning from the slams arrives Last Line: Tempest of providence inviting you into my soulwind SONNET: 58 First Line: Sadness dulls the bliss of my motherings Last Line: Dropped to earth, are absorbed without trace SONNET: 59 First Line: There proliferates a multitude of warring legends Last Line: Burning candles and throwing bones SONNET: 60 First Line: White tequila white moon white lies Last Line: At the big wind river and boil it all down to glory SONNET: 61 First Line: Reaching down into my griot bag Last Line: These are my slave songs SONNET: 62 First Line: Going into a jellyroll, bones threaten Last Line: Worry about me SONNET: 63 First Line: Cornfields, porker farms, hills rolling down Last Line: Chomping on corncobs is one of the arts SONNET: 64 First Line: This here majik douse of ice water to awaken a snoring Last Line: But we won't speak ill of SONNET: 65 First Line: From blonde shores and languid childhood lulls Last Line: Spume and coastal wind and shadow zone SONNET: 66 First Line: I am dying in lala in a blizzard of sun where Last Line: A dream dreamt then forsaken SONNET: 67 First Line: In this my mean white universe I'm sandwiched between Last Line: Be entangled and stung into stupidity? SONNET: 68 First Line: My executioner paints kisses on my mirror. That Last Line: Who, now, will sing my praisesong? SONNET: 69 First Line: Here. Allow me to reveal the incontrovertible logic of Last Line: And mineral water. But peace has come to the family SONNET: 70 First Line: In his grace he was silent. In his silence he called Last Line: God. In my smoke I call you SONNET: 71 First Line: First you must prove that you can sing while running Last Line: You gottalotta balls there. Cuntteeth. But no cock SONNET: 72 First Line: Every argument for purity should be turned over to expose Last Line: Below, sweet reef - a delicious drowning SONNET: 73 First Line: Blueprinted here in the sizzling breath of righteous Last Line: Dat dey may not only be flimflammed, but stanky SONNET: 74 First Line: The sensual bearded red wizard transforms Last Line: Have stolen the wind's hum and drunk all the blue SONNET: 75 First Line: My recalcitrant darling, what do I mean about Last Line: For without you, how am I to be who I've become? SONNET: 76 First Line: There be the fog outside and the fog inside Last Line: To embrace the fog to give it form and flesh SONNET: 77 First Line: Grandpapa's dying years before his death sapped Last Line: To the far - off jeer of the world whorling wild SONNET: 78 First Line: Lewd rumors/anti - democratic implications Last Line: Impregnate the imagination SONNET: 79 First Line: Blue blooms on ridges, pales lips and nails Last Line: After. I take cuttings of his hair and kiss the air SONNET: 80 First Line: The tor of thorns is a marriage Last Line: Erect gold idols to themselves and lick the dingles blue SONNET: 81 First Line: There it is. The endless impenetrable surface Last Line: Joan, you needn't be a saint to hear voices SONNET: 82 First Line: Calling all bluefools calling all bluefools Last Line: Here. It's like that SONNET: 83 First Line: Here comes dat nasty music again Last Line: On the other shore, bow - legged & sneakered SONNET: 84 First Line: A snizz o dis & a squinch o dat Last Line: Finders weepers losers keepers SONNET: 85 First Line: Jailer? Will you still love me when I'm flit? Last Line: I can hear a politician piss on cotton SONNET: 86 First Line: All our prophets - dead. All our gold proves lead Last Line: All that progress missed. All the beautiful shit SONNETS: 26 First Line: Kicks & jams & slams Last Line: Ache for the magic rush of your angelgush SONNETS: 27 First Line: Who I wasn't was that kink - wig stereotype tossed bills Last Line: The art of keeping toilet paper from sticking to fingers SONNETS: 28 First Line: How much juice rutabagas givin' up these days? Last Line: A black spasm on a brokedown bed SONNETS: 29 First Line: It does not fly. Ideological plumage/ a white Last Line: You look like money kiss SONNETS: 30 First Line: Getting into me this year/I'm wasted/am ever to Last Line: Flames I curse rescue, cry letttt me burn SONNETS: 31 First Line: Now bongos play remorse (verse of course) Last Line: Split this earth. Ancient drums new beats SONNETS: 32 First Line: There are few ways I know of by which I can Last Line: And I in my wits again SONNETS: 33 First Line: Hams & jams damn gams of ma'ams Last Line: Sweeter dish flambeed intensely if not well SONNETS: 34 First Line: Call me a rebel angel Last Line: I can't force them into my tiffany slippers SORCERESS OF MUNTU First Line: Raven lips & red tongue rhythming forth deluge Last Line: Every dreamer a fool & every fool flyin SOUL EYES First Line: Like twin hearts beating in amber Last Line: Like sent like received SOUTHWESTERN SOUL First Line: Trucker stops. Vanishing points. Mirages Last Line: Here a multitude of baked shit-colored bungalow doors %behind each salvation is stranded SOUTHWESTERN SOULD First Line: Trucker stops. Vanishing points. Mirages Last Line: Here a multitude of baked shit-colored bungalow doors %behind each salvation is stranded Subject(s): Travel SPACE TRAVEL First Line: Over drinks at the airport (this, of course, is %another planet) Last Line: On uranus. He said. There was. Once life SPLITZ First Line: Out eyes caught the gun going across the counter and we Last Line: Was as black and as pretty as you and god I %need my five hundred back STAMPEDE First Line: My mind belly an elephant STANDOFF IN EAST HOLLYWOOD First Line: Mother madness I am hiding in the broom closet STARBOUND First Line: She walks up astrological stairs Last Line: Feel my heart,' I answer, 'I think it's stopped' STARVED FOR AFFECTION BLUES First Line: Let me in your kitchen, lover Last Line: And it tastes so good to eat STAYING AND NOT STAYING First Line: Usually, when the man can no longer support his family, he leaves it' Last Line: Husband -- something society deems necessary %wife -- a high pitched bark STEEL First Line: Scraping sky. Lean stainless sheets. STEPHEN 1980 First Line: I surprised him breaking into the crib STEPHEN GONE First Line: Lone hitchhiker STONE CAT First Line: It needs no wicker Last Line: The sun on its back. The sun STONE ROCK LADY First Line: I take stone injections STRAPPING First Line: Daddyboy squeezed the joy into us when he tossed Last Line: Hands to his neck and jaw, hanging on for dear love STRAYHORN First Line: My ears extract his actuality from an essence Last Line: To live, embraced and revived SUDDEN VACANCY First Line: I sit and stare at the room Last Line: Mildew denial and lies SUNSET LIANA First Line: Midnight jazz & indigo Last Line: Touch it with your tongue SUSANNAH YOUR SMALLNESS & CEDAR HAIR First Line: So still in that hospital bed the tubes ran from your nose SWEET MAMA WANDA TELLS FORTUNES FOR A PRICE Poem Text First Line: Dark stairs/me walking up them Last Line: I know what tomorrow / is all about SWEET MAMA WANDA TELLS FORTUNES FOR A PRICE (1) First Line: Dark stairs %me walking up them Last Line: I know what tomorrow %is all about SWEET MAMA WANDA TELLS FORTUNES FOR A PRICE (2) First Line: Outside the door %echo footfalls Last Line: The cool veil of night %hungry no more SWEET MAMA WANDA TELLS FORTUNES FOR A PRICE (3) First Line: My man's arms %hold me/we fill the city Last Line: To the stone bone %this tomorrow SWEETENING First Line: Blighted bones sharpen, pierce gratified flesh Last Line: Smelling of sunshine %hear the singing SYSTEM First Line: Something there is that insists Last Line: It spins. Outside again TAKIN' A HEAD COUNT First Line: We gather %tome-on-tongue the bad verse of Last Line: So bleak even light is absorbed TALK ABOUT DADDY First Line: If I hadda known what kinda man Last Line: Don't mention that sonofabitch while I'm eatin' TALK ABOUT THE MONEY First Line: I need to talk hard cash. How to make it work Last Line: To live life in the black TAO OF UNEMPLOYMENT First Line: Things wait until funds are insufficient Last Line: Of self-respect. Never forget %who is being fooled TENDER OF SPLENDOR First Line: We belly laugh and drink in Last Line: Afterwards, the odors of singed hair and burnt air TEQUILA SUNRISE First Line: The kid in the yellow organdy dress, that's me Last Line: She can kill them with looks THE AMERICAN DREAM Recitation by Author Subject(s): United States; Money; America THE CALIFORNIA CRACK Poem Text First Line: She didn't know he was so shook Last Line: And she watched with mixed emotions / as he fell thru Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse; Narcotics; Opium; Cocaine; Crack; Heroin THE DEUCE OF CLUBS Poem Text First Line: The black would-be poet told me a story Last Line: To fill the cup with cum THE ISM Poem Text First Line: Tired I count the ways in which it determines my life Last Line: When I would speak of other things THE OLD WHITE MAN First Line: Was leaving the doctor's office Subject(s): Social Problems THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON BLUES Poem Text First Line: Can kill you Last Line: I'm a candidate for the coroner, a lyric / for a song Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness THEY CAME KNOCKING ON MY DOOR AT 7 A.M. Poem Text First Line: They had a warrant out for my arrest Last Line: But things had changed THEY CAME KNOCKING ON MY DOOR AT 7 A.M. First Line: They had a warrant out for my arrest Last Line: But things had changed THEY'LL STARVE YOU First Line: So you think you're better THIEF OF SPADES First Line: I wake him angry at 6 a.M. I scream, why'd you Last Line: Before he's gone for good THINGS HE TAUGHT ME First Line: How butterflies kiss Last Line: Let the smoke fill your heart THINGS NO ONE KNOWS First Line: Overcome by the stink of mildewed wash, I have Last Line: Like buddhaflies THIRD PARTY First Line: I keep going back to the butcher knife THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLUESBIRD First Line: After twenty centuries of witnessings Last Line: Drowned in the sediment THIS IS NOT MY LIFE ANYMORE Last Line: It belongs to the manchild who wears my frown THIS TOO AN ILLUSION First Line: Here on earth such choice hells Last Line: Lately I am given to speaking in tongues and %long inland lapses THREE TREES First Line: Lemon: %we could never Last Line: Ratty little bastards and some of your %fruit also THRU THE GAP First Line: The sensation of falling Last Line: A futile reunion to presumed wholeness TIME COMES WHEN YOU KNOW First Line: Suddenly tomorrow is not in your vocabulary. Yesterday Last Line: Go unheeded? Until finally something %broke inside TO THE ORIGINAL POET First Line: Last night I saw another you Last Line: He loves beer too much to commit suicide TO THE OTHER WANDA COLEMAN First Line: The phone rings again. Something cliks. It's dangerous Last Line: We know who's who. When will you? She's had hers %disconnected TODAY First Line: Today is me and friend girl macking Last Line: Wind against the rocks %sea sucking the shore TODAY I AM A HOMICIDE IN THE NORTH OF THE CITY Poem Text First Line: On this bus to oblivion I bleed in the seat Last Line: I know my killer is out there Subject(s): Americans; United States; America TODAY I AM A HOMICIDE IN THE NORTH OF THE CITY First Line: On this bus to oblivion I bleed in the seat Last Line: I know my killer is out there Subject(s): Americans; United States TOMBOY First Line: They caution on trees Last Line: Young butch and spit on the world TOTI'S BOWL: 1. First Line: Twas el senor made me do it - recalling my offering Last Line: At fu ling's TOTI'S BOWL: 2. First Line: On the way home, we take jefferson Last Line: I haven't visited pop's grave in quite a while TOTI'S BOWL: 3. First Line: In toti's bowl I keep things treasured Last Line: Eyes bunched up like grapes TOUGH LANGUAGE First Line: He complains I don't play it hardball enuff. He Last Line: To shoot the sheriff and liberate him from himself TREADMILL (1) First Line: The faster I run the faster I run TREADMILL (2) First Line: Squeek squeek. I come out of my corner and look around TROUBLE ON MY DOORSTEP BLUES First Line: Trouble and his partners hustle on the avenue TRYING ON HIS CLOTHES First Line: The smells of burma shave and old spice Last Line: Lower our squeaks and reach for his majesty TRYING TO GET IN First Line: Artaud for breakfast TWO TIMES BABY First Line: He's two nights gone for the second Last Line: When we put one - and - one together UCLA GRAFFITI BIO MED LIBRARY First Line: Beautiful girl's feet smell good Last Line: Butt tastes good %fuck usc UMBRELLAS OF TEJON-LEBEC First Line: Many look few see Last Line: On this road less taken the sign reads %closed ahead UNFINISHED GHOST STORY First Line: He woke in two shakes in a sweat and sat up in bed. She was Last Line: When she threw away all his white cotton shirts he knew it was %time to bury the past UNFINISHED GHOST STORY (2) First Line: This used to be her office Last Line: Isn't that dangerous business? %routine, these days Subject(s): Office Employees UNFINISHED GHOST STORY (4) First Line: He's new she's new they're news together Last Line: Get home I'm gonna have to purge my crystal ball UNFINISHED GHOST STORY (5) First Line: It is the eve of the eclipse. Jupiter is setting altho venus Last Line: Something fiercely bangs against the gated front door %to get in UNFINISHED GHOST STORY (6) First Line: Sydney was alone in their bedrooms crying over her difficulties Last Line: Leafy ice-cold head of crisp romaine lettuce UNFINISHED GHOST STORY (7) First Line: The city of raffia is wrapped in gridlock at 6 p.M. Last Line: Till then, she's shoveling shit to keep it pure UNFINISHED GHOST STORY (8) First Line: Lights out & instantly we jump twenty years of time Last Line: I didn't kill you myself UNFINISHED SCRIPT First Line: A woman's scream is heard followed by a series of moans Last Line: As the officers vacillate between annoyance, disgust, amusement %and laughter UNTITLED First Line: She was the perfect woman Last Line: What I am. They never believe me UNTITLED First Line: The hit man has oily fingers Last Line: If it's all the same to you, I'll keep stepping VARIATION ON A FAIRYTALE First Line: She wanted to believe it was nothing Last Line: Were gathering were growling VARIATIONS ON A BLUES MOTIF First Line: He brought nothing VERMONT MEETS MELROSE First Line: On the corner they go to the stud Last Line: And is soft and casts a shadow %like the moon VET First Line: High noon eyes %the haunt. A deserted street Last Line: Rides off toward %home %war begins VIOLENCES First Line: Curel rumors of a wealth never achieved Last Line: Later they find her dangling. At her neck %the rope of eyes VOICES First Line: I hear voices. I hear them often. I've heard them Last Line: I hear them. The voices. The noise of lies & analyses %threatening to follow me into life Subject(s): Voices WAIT First Line: Pregnant and bruised inside Last Line: Kill the twitch in my %left eye WAITING FOR PAUL First Line: In the bar %they play songs about outer space Last Line: Come in captain zero WALKIN' PAPERS BLUES (URBAN BLUES/JASS SERIES) First Line: Give me mah walkin' papers Last Line: A year of unemployment %and 2 weeks severance pay WANDA IN WORRYLAND First Line: I get scared sometimes Last Line: And have to go look into the mirror to see if I'm %still here WANDA WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD First Line: Wanda when are you gonna wear your hair down Last Line: Wanda wanda wanda I wonder %why aren't you dead WANT ADS First Line: 40 %of women who separated recently while Last Line: Moon goddess/the less that is more WATCHING Poem Text First Line: The television on Last Line: One eye is watching television WATCHING First Line: The television on Last Line: One eye is watching television WAY THEY FEEL First Line: Soft words. He's blowing in my ear, pressing me back Last Line: Taking with her his collection of jazz and pain to %barter for a fix WE COULD'VE MADE IT IF First Line: I were flat %and you were round Last Line: I were brighter-skinned WE MEET THE BLACK RIMBAUD First Line: As we exit the elevator we step into the Last Line: Bob kaufman? Who is bob kaufman?' WELFARE QUEAN First Line: Red - faced you follow the loony white line to Last Line: Bloodwart on the schnoz of christ WET THURSDAY First Line: Don't make that kind of book no more Last Line: Noise when you close the door WHALES First Line: As gods -- so-called Last Line: Is measured by its acceptance of %its time having passed WHAT HAPPENED IN PEORIA First Line: Her quasar lips and video eyes took hold of Last Line: After a hasty search of his mind he found nothing WHAT HE GAVE ME First Line: At first I didn't care WHAT I KNOW OF MY MAN First Line: How his head turns when desire enters his mind Subject(s): Fetishes; Obsessions WHAT I KNOW OF MY MAN First Line: How his head turns when desire enters his mind Last Line: Friction exacerbates his final exquisite suffusion %baby baby Subject(s): Fetishes; Obsessions WHAT IS IT ABOUT US WHAT IT MEANS TO BE DARK First Line: When you are beaten Last Line: Is offered out of expediency WHAT MUST BE REMEMBERED First Line: Something I have forgotten Last Line: The confession of bodies %to the urge WHAT THE BEAST EATS First Line: Those yellow portals %glisten in twinight -- 'surrender' Last Line: And all the dramas in between WHAT THE MOON SAW First Line: Not a wolf but a slew of jackals. The ax dropped by the Last Line: Army of teeth at work on the flesh of a luscious fresh kill WHAT THE WALLS SAY First Line: He spends too much time Last Line: He will tempt you to murder. Resist. To kill him %is to never be rid of him WHAT TO DO ABOUT BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE ANSWER Last Line: And let lady flow WHEN I SENSE THE SHADOW Last Line: At midnight I go to the closet WHERE I LIVE Poem Text First Line: At the lip of a big black vagina Last Line: Named black los angeles Subject(s): Los Angeles; Night Clubs; Violence WHERE I LIVE First Line: At the lip of a big black vagina Last Line: She's the baddest piece of ass on the west coast %named black los angeles Subject(s): Los Angeles; Night Clubs; Violence WHEYLAN 1963 First Line: His keen teen dream puppy love turned to pain WHY I DON'T WRITE LOVE POEMS FOR YOU First Line: Evahbody wanna do da horizontal bop' Last Line: To ward off this possession %of me by you Subject(s): Fetishes; Obsessions WOMAN ALONE BUT NOT LONELY First Line: Then when it is all that they say it is Last Line: Dancing and devoured in his smoulder WOMAN AND HER THANG First Line: She kept it in a black green felt-lined box Last Line: She's into that process now WOMAN EATER First Line: Urgency/to know taste touch smell others Last Line: I am crawling out of her mouth onto the nylon pillow WOMAN ON SAND First Line: My eye the coastline disappears on WOMAN WHO WENT UP IN SMOKE First Line: Sometimes a glimpse is caught Last Line: And went to vapors WOMEN IN MY LIFE First Line: My sisters do not write, unrequited letters beg Last Line: The women in my life cut deeper than the men WOMEN OF MY COLOR First Line: I follow the curve of his penis Last Line: Will I ever see %the sun WORD GAME First Line: Once upon a time, I a poet, transformed myself into a poem Last Line: Or a poem writing a poet WORKER (2) First Line: I am the dog they whip all day Last Line: And pray for the day dogs dream of WRITER'S REQUIEM First Line: Bury me in soft paper YOU HEAR ABOUT THEM First Line: Ones who turn face to wall and die. Poverty starts in Last Line: The young ones haunt a room for years YOU JUDGE A MAN BY THE SILENCE HE KEEPS First Line: He calls to tell me something. The something Last Line: Finds its way to my face %stays until I wash |
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