...Unfamiliar and perhaps
panglossian
the world squeaks brand new
walls pressing
uncertain
always I am bedding the uncertain curve of home
stranger here
stranger there
everywhere I go I am plastic wrapped
and crinkling
madness wrestles prudent to the proverbial floor
whore that I am for women who feel as hard as they fuck
fuel me foolish
maybe flailing flopping filial
child of a land
laden with History/fettered halting
hinder me heartfelt
and frail
I only appear frail from some angles
bend me
I will not break even if you place me
forehead
to femur/fold me friend or enemy
fickle and afraid
love me/love me not
what sort of passion presents itself
both prison and portal
plenty plenty
hole to fall through this one
careful of this world round like a ball
Grandma says
hit it and watch it hurl heart and History
over fence and feeling
dance child dance for your supper
showtime is the right time
sing and dance silly bitch don't know
she should be moving
anti-stasis
keep it moving small girl fattening into
too many years of knowing
how to fall
drown
sink the angerless craft
ire is the raft upon which survival turns
caprice is what it will do to you
eventually
if you let it
life will throw you curved/balls and pussies
that rock schizophrenic
climbing you/wall and surface breaking
one moment
the next zipping through the grilled window
rolling fur and fury in the dirt
trap her
and she will break
you
heart and History aside
the ride has never been predictable
but the road has always been pretty to watch
harder to traverse
the lump of self settling awkward
and that throaty laugh
conscious of time and distance/other bodies
closer than mine
closer to yours
clever
the discovery
chance and candor
too soon too soon too soon
wish the years were better navigated
water and oceans of silence have made us
different people
heart and History
at odds
odd
how it feels like the time was wafer/thin
transparency melting slow on the curve of hip
lip
tongue tip
and tiny toes
entwined in moons bursting and morning
noon is when we finally separated
heart and History
Jamaica and me
tangled sheet and elbows bent
almost broken
scabbed
I will not remain in pieces
I intend to heal
eventually
heart and history will congeal
hello and goodbye twisted lock and finger
curls into caprice
caught between quiet and chaos
quick and slender
supple and sullied
snake and apple
slip the sweet holding/slender and hollow
hope into hindrance
hard and holy
wrench me human/hold me time
and tender
tell me truths
even if they bruise
mark me teeth and terror
tempt me
taint me plate tectonics
plant me
permanent
heart/History/hang me transparent
melting into hope
orchids and silence
necessary
but new
Nearly a week
since my uncle passed
no words have sprung eloquent
from finger
nor tongue
son of a nation
deserted I am mourning you
small sad moments lengthened when there is opportunity
writing is hard
when there is so much to say
not enough page/stage/rage to hold it all
the latter years we grew close
you
in my living room
fixing locks
sockets
walls/beds you never rested in
always you traveled home
to my cousins
Tracey
Toya
Sherrel
they mourn you now
staccato
without the predictability of rhythm
life is a minefield
negotiated in opportunity
lilts
and hints at being better tomorrow
another lifetime maybe
another life lived
with its purpose hidden
locked into the secrets
of time and windows closed
to open them is to look square
in the eye of leaving one reality
for one unsure walls tumbling
brutal
my favorite uncle is dead
nothing to say
nothing to do
but twirl the whirling dirge
round and round the hibiscus bush
the lush flurry of leaves
alive
in the face of such indifference
the funeral is Sunday
but I am here
task set
and things to do
things to do
things
always to do