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Messy, 'specially on Sundays.
Feet a'shamble from stumblin' drunkhappy.
"It's all good, baby," Blakey yells over the drums.

Bourbon flavored women hard to swallow
with their jagged softness. Smoking section (whites) stares
down dance floor (everyone else) with guilt induced jealousy.

Coltrane's back in Philly studyin.'
Pinstriped chuckle from the Rosenbergs;
kinetic energy giving birth to the cool.

The trumpeter's high turns his tool into a weapon.
The sound briefly stealing him from his demons.
"I'll find a guy when I finish my set."

Black and white televisions: blacks in white suites
Smiling china white for an all white audience.
The movers, to this point, have only been black.

Little hero Harry thinks
  blacks and whites should die on the battlefield together.
Everyone's starting to get it.

"That guitar sweeter than my old lady."
Charlie and Miles holding each other's needles
while Thelonious and his hard candy go bad.

Leanin' on bricks in a back alley.
The circle passes the joint around like the good times.
"Just keep em rollin."

The skirts expand and deflate wildly to the rhythm.
Pure sweat melting into the floors like drops of water on roots.
A melody never heard before.
One night
two souls met
at the old bridge
to debate the differences
between men and women.

"i prefer
being a woman,"
said one. "They're born
as princesses and live not by
suggestion but as the heart determines."

"Sheesh," said
the second. "That's
all pretty and nice
but men have power.
Will always run faster, lift
more, protect the population."

"Impressive," the
first soul said.
"Still, ladies have compassion
even when they've lost will. When
we've had our fill we stop eating and place
the rest of our food in a **** box like a sane person."

The second
soul yawned. "We
eat for energy so
we'll always be able
to guard and protect, you.
Admit it, your attracted to tough guys."

"I've always been a lesbian."

(awkward .."oh..")

The first
soul retorted the
silence. "Because women need
protecting. You've placed us under
your big toe and refused to ever let go.
But I've been back just a day, and I've got some info."

"And what would that be?"

"Gender is irrelevant but women run the show."

(awkward .."oh..")
All I need is some air
air
air
I used to walk over there
right over there
but now the hallways depress me.

I stretch and yawn
the hospice just fare
fare
fare
always cold and still,
white. Bare.*

My mother's questions
lodge crystals in
my colon.
Now we'll know
an emerald city.


The Coat
(Unsurprsingly) says
"It's my first day"
My cocktail of
tiny hard whites
and oranges,
yellows, blues;


A declaration I am not new.

In fact,
I
may never be through.
More white Coats
await corners as
mini-bosses do.
    

*The controller breaking
in my palms.
I haven't lost but if I did where would I go?
The answer is, nobody knows
knows
knows.
Your face reminds me of
Lucifer just before he fell
from heaven and changed
the course of humanity

        - if you believe such a thing.

Too smug to understand: the beauty
of eternity has you only
on its fringes.
I'd rather not write
than write poorly
the same way
I'd rather not laugh
if not wholeheartedly
the same way
I'd rather not care
when heartbroken.

Yet I write
when a decent sentence is a struggle
and I laugh  
when I'm so lonely I could vanish cold
and I care all too much
too often.

The balance came when I realized
that it would take one woman to
break my heart, two good friends
to water my eyes from laughter,
and one hundred poems before I chiseled something
worth looking at.
tired.
oh!
                  so tired.
*****
I want to be your franchise player;
The reason you come out under
The lights.
My name and number sewn;
A hall of famer that will
Inevitably grace the walls
To the corridors
Of your memory with
A bust of my face.

I want to be the One.
Not the backup on
The bench with a
Crooked cap on my
Head and my helmet
Between my feet.
I need playing time
With you.

I want to win.
Fiercely. I have
No intention of
Joining other
Clubs, and I
Wouldn't handle
Free agency well.

Ill put you on my
chest everyday
And go to war
for you. Point
To you from the
Field when we score.
Then come home to
You.

(Every time we're distant is the offseason. Every time we're
Together is a championship
Parade)
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