The internet cafe is closing in two minutes
nothing much to say except
the world is full
and wide open and joyful
challenging
but good for me
and the dream still
being conjured
I love the sound of the
night quiet
or rushing with the clatter of heart
being open
I will be in New York in one day
in Jamaica in two
see you when I chance
to rumble in your
neck of the proverbial
woods
kisses
from the cold front
of my mother's home
Till such time
as warrants the meeting of our flesh
Staceyann
Years
and years and years
ago
a small girl was born
a few years before that
a man named Jesus
on the very same day was born
they say
no one knows for sure
Christ
then me
two pounds of wiggling flesh
deposited for humor
on a plate
reserved for dinner
that was me
three-score and two
jahre
this year has been a humdinger
but I survived this one too
fuck you
despair
the sky has been shooting stars
still
even in the absence of people
lovers
friends
enemies I have allowed
too close to my pound of wiggling flesh
you will not eat me
alive
kill me first and then my body will
be dust
you will choke on it
my body will take your breath away
butterfly/phoenix
insect
sometimes you look like something
firefly drawn as I was to you
scorpion
you left me stung world
years later my chest till dances the rise
and fall of defiance
I love you Larah
and Lisa
Delano
Gabby
Chauntelle
Racquel
Janelle
Asha
Asante
Dominique
Tiona
Ain
and her pen
AUDRE
FRIDA
ZORA
Toni Morrison
Edwidge Danticat
Kamau Brathwaite
Kwame
Your names have become Litany
on my tongue
my ear
Alice
and Darcy
I am glad you both have hearts
ears
Suheir
rainbow girl reminding me
things bloom even when we are pressed
thick beneath gray skies
things are aflower
girl!
Ishle
Tamica
Robyn
breath and laughter
this is what I wish for
under the open sky
of the alps
I am dreaming in colored
frocks/skirts
my mother's dream for herself
come true for me
I am writer
traveler
face
belonging to too many places
I sleep well
in none of them
hotel rooms
even at Christmas
my birthday
one hallway away from my brother
we fight
and laugh and reminisce
and forgive
in a house/hotel in which he tumbles
over his pictures/plants/present identity
not quite black boy
at home in Austria
in Jamaica
sleeps under feathers
me
I am breathing in
this clean air
this clear water reflecting more than
my own History
carving the shape of this
new direction
love of self
is a thing of rapid splendor
jewelled and glinting in the quiet
gray of skies
you once knew intimately as blue
it will come again
Christmas makes one less day
for winter
time pass
so fas'
so fas' so fas' so fas'
Cheryl Boyce Taylor
say it pas' too fas' for she heart
my body still holding on
to girlhood
dunno why
I ain't had no chirren yet
but soon
child
I soon come fi you
just wait right there
and I will come
maybe next year will bring something more than this wild promise made every year
after year I making promise
time to make the baby, eh?
in love
and all the things that make us conflicted
about birthdays
and Christmas
and all that jazz
Til nex' time,
Staceyann
... 25 minutes
from the Hintertux Glacier
6 feet from my brother
and the snow caps are picturesque
storybook afternoon
we talk of our mother
our beautiful sister
Larah the bee
being herself in Köln
here we are
years later remembering how it was
in Bethel Town
so long ago
in Bethel Town
Jamaica
Jerusalem
faraway from here
the first Christmas for me
for those who wait for another
messiah
another crucifixion
another birth
Christmas
and my birthday to boot
me and Christ
born both outsiders
unwelcome
but here we come all the time
trudging the track of tradition gone
awry
babies are so vulnerable to the processes
of the places through which they come
happy holidays
kwaanza
birthday
whatever leaves you open
to smiling
three days after a small performance
in Heidelberg
thank you Concha and Frank
Jakob and Das Hotel Krocodil
on a street called Kleinschmidtstrasse
15
quaint little thing
not too far from the Buchergilde
cafe
bookstore
where I bought Neruda in German
translations are interesting
Zell am Ziller
and we head to Italy in a few days
for a meal or two
snow everywhere
and all my friends are far
and away
New York
Montego Bay; Kingston
Stockholm
Japan
I miss all the parts of what make you amazing
ah soon come
gimme a week and I will be
there
this is the first quiet
since I left Brooklyn
almost one week now
feels good
cushioned in the warmth of this
strange place of family
will tell you more as it unfolds
kisses from
the valley of the alps,
Staceyann
...then the tour
breaks
four weeks to travel
on my own
Germany and my sister
my niece
my mother
and Christmas
for the first time
my brother and I will break bread
on weinacht
in years
I want to see Italy in winter
maybe Paris
have not seen the louvre
in a long ass time
the alps and these windows and how they look
like fairy
tales of how life is beautiful
for those who are lucky enough
to be able to still see
stars
night and no lover to gaze at
so the heavens
are electric
alight with it's own might
I am insignificant
and beauty is when I forget
I exist
or hurt
wallpaper
for horizon
and faraway me
and two teenagers who look like each other
a bit like me
and my brother
Delano
I love you Black boy
mixed up
with salt and experience
and meine mutter's cheeks
bones
blood and muscle
we are beautiful
boy
we are bounty
bless
you say when we are done with the talk
of nostalgia
bless I respond
thank you for my niece
thank you for my brother
mama
and meine kleine schwester
mama
thank you for my mouth
and my hands flying rapid and radiant in performance
tis the season
to forget the leaving
to be grateful
for our survival
all these years without each other
mama
I am coming Mama
not quite home
but I am returning
to all you are
no regrets
tonight
only hope pulsing proud
of you and the dirt tracks you have carved
from rock
and the rhetoric of class
chiseled
granite inside this generation's chest
I had a massage today
and I loved the soft oil
sliding
civil down my naked ass
over my hips
my body is my own
tonight
I belong only to the slit of navy
backlit glass visions
from my hotel window
tonight
I am reading your interview
thinking I should have said so much more
(maya you made me stunning)
God
is dancing Coltrane
Alice and all I will leave as memory
tonight
I am happy
Jamaica waits for me
Europe
beckons
and Africa knows it is only a matter of time
before I visit again
Rushnie
and Samantha
and Chris
Lebo
Mackie
Kano
you are all laid
thick beneath my tongue
tonight
Atlanta was witness
and I was grateful
I was able to take the stand
in the spirit
of the nocturnal
celebrated
Staceyann
Click here to check out Maya's interview