I guess mushroom swiss burgers
are supposed to have mushrooms.
THEY ARE NOT supposed to have
lettuce, tomato, or pickle.
ONLY mushroom and swiss.

The angry and life deprived woman I was looking
down at sternly informed me.

Her burger was rapidly fixed.

The friendly, quiet, and easy table to the left
tipped me eight dollars for my troubles.

There are some good people.
It all comes out in the wash.

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may **** me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

I have had this reoccurring dream.

that the sun is so bright
I become paralyzed.
unable to open my eyes.

My face
contorted.

     eyebrows raised
     jaw stretched
     pupils restless.

body immobile.

I remain.  
not exactly,
yet at the same time completely,

blind.

I don't know if I'd call it a nightmare,
but it's the only dream that scares me.

its hilarious when he says it
then I say the same sentence
but the words sound fumbley and dumb
I end up chuckling it off and we laugh about how dumb it was when I said it

so supposedly it's all about the delivery
I guess I'll work at a pizza place then.
oh wait I already did
but I stopped doing that because it wrecked my car
my car said "please no more"

it started with the misfiring
I was like okay lets take you to the shop
so the misfiring stopped and i was like all better now right?
little ham and pineapple to this house, how bout a pepperoni over here
oh and what about some cheezy bread to 455 barry st.

a week later i turned the key and the start up was slow and i could hear the murmurs
"please no more"
I was like come on you are my income
but the tan beast was relentless and finally I took it to the shop again
and quit my job.
now my beastly and tan station wagon is in tip top condition
and I'm going to work on my delivery
of words and jokes and actions and kindness and all good things
but not pizzas
even though pizza is a very good thing
i love you my lovely car please take me on more adventures

This garden you planted in my mind.

Weeded out my doubts
Your words like seeds
Your thoughts caring
Like the clouds
Looking out for the ground
With their rain.

I shook you off
Like the branches
And the leaves in November.

Yet you returned
Like the spring
And you’re slow to scold winter.

today my grandma told me something
something I never knew
and something she'd never forget
she told me I was baptized in tie dye socks
tiny little feet
tiny little socks
baptized in tiny little tie dye socks

Passover or Easter or Happy Any Ole Thing, Sam I Am

she
asks me good naturedly
which to wish me - a happy this or that
and a poem’s immaculate conception is instant arisen arising
hot ****

rueful smile and unruly reply
a solid out loud Ha!

neither either or he writes and so believes

for I am a god loving man,
whom we’ve -Him/It/Me have agreed
that I may call
Sam I Am
and the answer to your question is
why not

for most quests and questions can be well-answered
why not!

my genes my historical beings my ancestors and my issue
all declaiming that I am a jew who left egypt, no defaming, a slave to no man who cannot love another like his own self

but some in all that I write, this deity boss slips in quietly unseen in one of his jokes-on-us-disguises like singing ave maria

and thus whose to say
his rightful name, is not
Sam I Am

my choice and the big D
     (a self-employed informal his choice, nom-de-guerre)
has agreed via his acknowledgement in his normative style of
low volume taciturn tacit acceptance

so wish me a u happy
anything you want-to-call-it-day

don’t matter. but know this u were there
when, all on that happy day where, @ the manger,
when this Sam-Approved-Appeared
poem was born and Sam blessed it with a
hot ****!

she laughs, tosses back in my face, some schematic I
prior penned that I can’t recall the when or where or my
nom-de-guerre employed but fits this ex-slave perfectly

“there are no lines or lies in my writings
there are no definitions and
perception is only your truth”