Survivors Young survivors of bullets blood and screams And parents of tender psyches ripped at the seams, Elected puppets placate with diversionary chatter But show Black lives ain’t the only ones don’t matter, You cry you plead you shout you bleed They give thoughts and prayers and nothing you need You rally and carry placards in deep duress; They speak […]
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Freestyle Loving #1 I want to take it slow, stroke your glow, kiss your soul, savor the flow, love you whole. My action gains traction on every attractive fraction My artistic practice gives you drastic satisfaction My comfort zone is your home like a soulful honeycomb Massage your skin tone caress your bones ‘til you moan Make love to your […]
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Memorial Baptist Church For a Harlem Dancer when word becomes flesh, and voices moan lamentations of the never dead; way out of no way joy make feet bones rattle and take flight in ecstatic tapping in grip of Holy Ghost touch making souls happy eyes roll sweat dances slender legs become wings open to birth revelations for chosen ones to […]
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A Catch worm wiggles impaled as hook flies on line over river. lands in bursting droplets. bobber rises dances on surface in synch to rhythm of undulating river waves. river song. cricket calls. bird chatter. breeze like woodwinds swaying audience of leaves to applause. waters flowing through ancient glacial earth scars. bottom-soil whispers. suddenly, liquid aurora borealis splashes in soft […]
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Dance of the NoName Diva (…my 19 year old son, home from college, invites me to concert…December 31, 2017, Lincoln Hall, Chicago) The conspiracy of nodding heads To blunted out sounds percolating Slow burn Afro punk vibe on the low end Making lights dance through smoky club haze Making son and friend dance stiffly And then loose themselves like boiling […]
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Invitation What if everybody had religion And the living word was love? No will to power but compassion To prosper. No ideology to conquer, Schism to compel. evolution Out living hell to state of no jails. No greed to deny what we need. And we didn’t name it something Other people cannot be. if we loved The waters, air, life […]
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Evil (For Robert Johnson) locked out from history, rage bleeds red hue in eyes, exiled by hell hounds in ghetto of hope mocking days. skies crying cremation for my soul. nights churning blues in haze of whiskey spells. aint got nothing and nothing to lose. i be evil. satan is my insane name. thirsty razor in pocket. murder vision churning […]
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For Billy Branch and Sons of the Blues seventh sons of seven sons of seventeen sun sultans of seven suns be Sons of the Blues. mirrors crawl along black walls broken by lavatory doors and pathways emitting garden of fried scents conjured in the kitchen and windows open to midnight desolation of east 79th chandeliers drip spots of electric lights […]
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Apology and the Quest for Learning as your daddy who dies painfully and resurrects every night with love for you/ momma and me, I’m sorry I say to the midnight while you sleep. alone in parenthood angst. you annoyed the fuck out of me while I was doing God’s work, I tell myself without conviction. my ego bamboozled run amuck […]
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Natural Head Revolution (Inspired by an Angela Davis Lecture at ISU) Natty heads arise Natty minds surmise Natty time to radicalize Natty eyes on the prize Black souls naturalize Resurrect our soul ties Freedom fighting voices rise Revolution of the wise Lift your mind drop the gun Freedom calling forward run Flash your dreads like Rastaman Keep on climbing to […]
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