based on a prompt from bernadette mayer

dance dance dance dance dance
hold me close and tell me a secret 
dance dance dance dance dance 
be sweet and thoughtful when u can
draw us a bubble bath, with lavender 
a solo traveller’s farewell gift
a message that it’s okay to leave
whisper to me “you’re all mine”
even tho you don’t mean it

i’m so excited for tomorrow 
and the possibility it brings
i forget about my anger
and i begin to sing 

i’m full to the brim 
with knowing
all the subtle sayings
until it’s snowing
i begin praying

what’s your disease?
what’s your damage?
tell if you please
if u can manage 

run me my money ho
then we can talk abt
what’s funny tho?
run me my money o
re-tribute this honey
so swell u think no
u ain’t shit 
RUN ME MY MONEY HO

“A nice gathering like today is not enough. You have to go back, and reach out to your neighbors who don’t speak to you. And you have to reach out to your friends who think they are making it good, and get them to understand, that they, as well as you and I, can not be free in America or anywhere else where there is capitalism and imperialism.”

somebody almost walked off wit alla my stuff

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself
They come through you but they are not from you
And though they are with you, they belong not to you
You may give them your love but not your thoughts
They have their own thoughts
They have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the place of tomorrow
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You can strive to be like them
But you cannot make them just like you
Strive to be like them
But you cannot make them just like you
— Read on thebirdsings.com/OLD/songs/on-children.html

black girl
i’m here
okay?
still here. 
i’m sorry
i could not 
be what
was need

but no
excuses
no more
ppl want
u to be
need u 
to be
more 
and 
strong 

and 
lover man
ain’t 
comin back

Historian Gerald Horne has developed a grand theory of U.S. history as a series of devastating backlashes to progress—right down to the present day.
— Read on www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-long-american-counter-revolution/

girl
u think i wanted all that
response-ability? 

or was i mummied into
it mammy-jacked?
what if all potential 
black fire could be 
made to tend the
dying embers
of da west? 

or do we bend back
to africa! garvey had
the direction, now we 
need perpetual 
insurrection