By DAA, 2006.
What about children who aren’t ready to be born?
Who honors their cries of protest?
Ease him out slowly, gently.
Placenta on the tongue
Snot thick around the eyelids
Taste feel smell the essence
Do not choke.
Fingers wet with anticipation
Of the new
Fragile, unsettled
He crawls toward an unfamiliar light
Trying to ascertain
What he might need or want
In this new place.
A satchel full of poems?
A cutting tongue?
A bow and arrow?
Ease him out slowly,
This one came to fight.
All liberations disrupt the dreamlife
Tsunamied villages face down
In soft mud
Commingled with spit
And ash broken branches trees slumping
Cups and clothing
Diapers and TV guides
Books face open
Sofa a place for ants and worms
Ease him out slowly
This one didn’t want to come.
Contractions distractions protractions mere actions
Labor and deliverance
All he can hear at the moment
Are sirens.
Who are they coming for?
Who are they for?
Who are they?
From this hour on
Things will be different.
Come, if you dare
To see what
Is born from desperation
Fear, insecurity
Jealous, rage
Laughter
Lies
Risk
What once was waiting
Laughing in the shadows
Now cradles my head
What greed looks like
Trussed up on its back
Legs open all night
What opening the cut
Feels like at 2am
What a trick it is
To place pillow
Muffle silly knees
How memories of tenderness
Dance on the skin
Unrepentantly
How liberty feels
In a constricted throat
Ready to burst with tears
Yelling at
The Ancestors
Spirit guides
Angels
For answers
For relief
For breath
How a heart wheezes
A painful tickle
Terrifying, hilarious
How lies love an audience
Waiting for the battle royale
A showdown in sepia
How drama watches its reruns
Because it cannot watch
Anything else
How vacant the city feels
At 2am
Harlem yelps and throws itself
On the ground
Please.
Please.
Please just be quiet
I just want to sleep.
Please.
Help me get over.
Help me not go under.
How breaking open
Signals new things
You too will grasp at
Your innards
Spilling
How new sounds erupt
Substitutes for
Sweet phone calls
Peach rings
Stank breath
Mouth wide open
On its back
Dreaming me.
Next: Bounce Flight
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 @ 09:46 AMIts always a joy to run across a bit of poetry while blogging alone and I am glad that I came across yours. This is a wonuderful poem and you are very good at it.
PEASE BROTHER
Hallo. Beautiful poem brother, I hope I can call you brother. very nice picture too. Keep up the good work. Will meet you nxt time I'm in New York.
Marlon