The fog has rolled across
The land, blanketing
My senses.
Surrounding me in
Its icy maw. Her breath,
It chills my spine.
I feel so empty without
That shawl, outside the
Mantle of death. Here is where
My spirit lies, here is my
Domain.
The tears of death revive
Me, her chill embrace
Enraptures me.
If only I could spend
Eternity in her sweet embrace
If only, oh if only.
It wont be long 'til I
Am there with her, in her
Of her, until I am her.
Her fog has rolled across
The land, blanketing
My senses.

Branches just above me
Gold leaves like mother's jewels.
Surrounded by the sages of days gone by.
The wind was my instructor, my best and favorite teacher.
Her boughs they hid me from the world, but not the
World from me.
I felt the very beat of Earth
And basked in the embrace
Of the littlest maple tree.

I am a poor man
sitting on the corner of
Your Conscious
and Your Reality.
All day everyday
I sit in that spot and
beg for change.
But keep your quarters, nickels, dimes
for someone else
'cause all I want is a cup of change.
A cup of change
to water my feeble hope, thorny rose
rooted in concrete hatred.
Roots, like my fingers,
too feeble to hold anything
but this patch of dirt to remind
me, I exist.
ALMS! ALMS! ALMS for the poor of heart!
But keep your quarters, nickels, dimes
for someone else
'cause all I want is a cup of change.
A cup of change
to wash away the muck kicked in my face.
A cup of change
to cleanse the wounds made
by verbal bullets shot out of nine millimeter mouths
wielded carelessly by boys society has deemed as men.
I sit in this spot and fester,
like a dream deferred.
My skin, cracked and brittle
like aged parchment, hangs over my frame
like sheets over antiqued furniture.
I sit in this spot with
arms open wide, heart open wide, eyes open wide
BEGGING FOR CHANGE!
But keep your quarters, nickels, dimes
for someone else
'cause all I want is a cup of change.
A cup of change
to strip the lies and propaganda
from the decrepit facades of your ideas,
storefront workshops left from the age of enlightenment.
My body yearns for nourishment
but I can't afford your lies.
But keep your quarters, nickels, dimes
for someone else
'cause all I want is a cup of change.
Now I'm not asking for a Jesus on Galilee moment,
just a cup of change to feed what's left of my soul.
But who am I to ask for anything?
I am just the poor man
sitting on the corner of
Your Conscious
and Your Reality.
All day everyday
I sit in that spot and
beg for change.
But keep your quarters, nickels, dimes
for someone else
'cause all I want is a cup of change.

I locked my heart in a silver chest
and threw away the key.
I set it out upon the sea
to sail away from me.
For if my heart had disappeared,
the pain would follow suit.
But it seems my logic flawed,
that misery still walks with me.
She lays with me in bed at night
and diligently, so faithfully, walks right by my side.
Her steps, they leave no guiding mark
and I alone can see her.
She whispers softly in my ear
That she will always be here.
She takes her hands,
such dainty things,
and wipes away my tears
leaving only the faintest lines,
ravines across my face.
I locked my heart in a silver chest
and threw away the key.
I set it out upon the sea
to sail away from me.

Dimly the light above
me flickers,
feeble,
like my heart.
Dust sparkles, diamond like
in the fleeting beams
of cold lights.
Antiqued books, with yellowed
pages and worn leather skins,
cratered by clumsy fingers,
line the dark oaken bookshelves.
A fine veil of dust covers their
naked skins.
The walls, they were once
beautiful, exotic vines crept up
their lenghts, punctuated by vivid
blooms.
But now, now they bare
a natural face.
Garments pealed and faded
blooms rest,
fragile and wrinkled,
at her feet.
A dark, gray room
in the final throws of death.
No life survives,
no light...
no pulse...
no thing, nothing save a
single
red
rose.
Summer
Spring
Winter
Fall
evermore she blooms.
Her thick oily petals
are smeared into the glass.
she was there
before I came.
She will be there
when I'm gone.

I can hear him,
Hear him long 'fore I sees him.
Can hear him stompin
Stompin 'cross the ceilin
Of the earth like he mad at the world.
Mad at us for just bein.
Rain Man stomp so hard
he send the wind runnin
runnin hard runnin mad
kickin up dust an' pickin up leaves
Screamin at the top of her lungs
Pull down ya garments
and shut up yo hatches.
Call in yo chillun's 'cause
Lawd I declare
The Rain Man comin'
 
I can see him now
sees him off in the distance.
Talltoweringhulk of man.
Skin real dark.
But not that ******-baby
kinda dark what look
like somethin dead been
drug through the mudndipped in tar
with fat uncooked sausages for lips
like they got in the picture shows
an shoppin books.
Nah this that pretty kinda dark
Night sky kinda dark
dark so deep
ya get lost in it and find God there too.
Yeah, he got that pretty dark.
But he got them eyes,
them pretty white eyes
sparkle so hard like God
plucked the North star and the Pointer star
right out the sky and stuckem
in his face.
His hair, thick black coils of hair,
grow like kudzu stretch down
his back and move in the wind like
snakes with minds of they own.
He turns his head backnforth
sendin them vines
flyin
stretchin stretchin to forever till
CRACK
they snap back,
snap back so hard they like to
split the air with fury
that shook me to my soul.
 
I can feel him now
feel him as he wraps me in his arms,
what seem to be made of steel, and
pull me into that chest made of
mountain stones firm
firm like the earth I ain't no
longer standin on 'cause he
picked me up clear off my feet
no connection to the ground but him.
I wrap my birdy lil arms round
his neck and bury my
bony lil fingers in the
layers of his hair.
I can feel the warmth
roll offa him in waves
waves like the ones cornfields
make when they kissed by wind,
or maybe even waves like them from
the sea as they reach out for land to
save them from drownin just 'fore
they fall back into the sea, I just
know that he feel good.
 
I can smell him,
smell every bit of him as I
bury my head deeper into his neck.
He smell warm like the earth,
like red clay smell after he and sun
done made out all day, warm like a
man smell after he done spent
all day hunch backed starin
at the earth tryna trick her to
give'm just a lil somethin to eat.
Even his clothes, holey rags they are,
smell like smoke but not that
cold angry smoke what come from the
factory, not that black stuff what
puff itself up to block out the sun
like he mad at her for shinin so pretty.
Nah, his smoke smell like that soft
gray smoke that drifts lazy-like from
daddy's shed after he done bled a
pig for us to eat during winter.
His smokeyness smell like earth.
 
I can taste him
taste every memory of him
as I kiss blindly startin at his
neck workin my way up
tryna find his mouth.
Every inch of his face taste sweet,
like the caramel candies them old
ladies at church carry round in they bags,
made even sweeter by the salty tang
of each bead of sweat as it tumbles
down his face and drips on my blouse
stainin the pretty lil flowers.
All I know is he taste good.

The sky smelled like rain today.
Thick with the promise
of relief. Thick like the scent of
your body that seeped into every
letter you sent promising you'd
come back today. I still have
those letters, all twenty. Twenty letters
from twenty days all promising the
same thing, seven pm tonight.
Everything on earth just knew
the rain was coming. For the first
time in months the trees played
their song as the wind danced
in rhythm. Even the dust jumped
higher, like it was reaching out
for the rain that hadn't come.
 
The day drug on like time stood still.
But the sky still smelled like rain.
I heard the birds singing about it.
They weren't the only thing singing,
my soul was singing right beside them.
 
Six o'clock came and the sky got dark.
The rain was almost here. The air and
my heart were heavy with expectation.
The winds danced faster and the trees
moaned louder as they welcomed the
rain.
But my song ended because you weren't there.
The clock struck seven and the sky cried
out. Seven times he screamed at the top of
his lungs.
gongBOOM...
 
 
 
gongBOOM...
 
 
 
gongBOOM...
 
 
 
gong­BOOM...
 
 
 
gongBOOM...
 
 
 
gongBOOM...
 
 
 
gongBOOM...
and­ the rain came down,
all night long sky and I cried.
Cried for different reasons but we cried together.
All night sky cried the joy of release
and the world cried in relief.
All night I sat by my window and cried in disappointment
because you never came. All night I watched
for you, but your shadow never darkened my door
but your absence darkened my heart.
 
The sky smelled like rain yesterday.
Thick with the promise
of relief. Thick like the scent of
your body that seeped into every
letter you sent promising you'd
come back yesterday. The rains came,
but where were you?