So tell me; lover;
what mischief can we make?
what rules shall we break?
which pleasures shall we try?
tell me; lover; before we die.

the single pearl connected to rich gold
hung about my dark skin chokes
your prejudiced thoughts
the deep blue silk on
my dark caramel back
folds tightly
over your eyes
it distracts you from
my colour
and
the click of my Italian leather shoes
covering my ***** black feet
hides the way I
sometimes choose
to speak

it is sad

it is sad that there is more
difference
between the well dressed &
poorly dressed black
than the
well dressed &
poorly dressed white
- but check your thoughts
you know I’m right!

How do I know?

It is sad

‘cause
I’ve been taught and told
since lord knows how old
to think to feel to hold
the same ****
views
is how I know
it is sad

that if a child ever happens to me
either or neither boy or girl
from you,
I will arm them
with a single pearl

THE SIGH (on hearing an ill friend is alive)

it started in my brain
it moved to my lungs
it swelled to my soul
and finished on my lips
-- relief; he is okay.

THE SIGH (on hearing a once ill friend is dead)

it started in my gut
it scattered to my lungs
it sunk to my soul
and finished at my eyes
-- regret; I have words unsaid.

I wonder how many times

that hand has brushed those teeth
and fed that mouth.

How many doors it has opened
and things it has punched.

How many times it has pleasured
that body, pleasured a Body,

Belonged to another
Body, I wonder

how many times more
that hand

shall brush those teeth.

our friendship would wither
my lips knew well
but the kiss was sweet
so they dare not tell
that with bricks from burnt
bridges a path we did pave
and cemented in youth
it lead to a grave
the inscription on which
read ‘killed by a kiss’
oh so pleased was I
that I did not miss

But sober now in the blinding day
so sad, I smell, the foul decay.