teller, what you forecast for me today,
fortune teller, fortune teller, what you forecast for me today,
cuz i ain’t got no time to be messing with yo yesterday.
even though you came in december be my january man,
i say, even though you came in december be my january man,
but you know i’ll take you any month i can
but you know i’ll take you any month i can.
HAIKU
how fast is the wind
sailing? how fast did i go
to become slow?
BLUES HAIKU
let me be yo wil
derness let me be yo wind
blowing you all day.
BLUES HAIKU
am i yo philly
outpost? man when you sail in
to my house, you docked.
HAIKU
my womb is a dance
of leaves sweating swift winds
i laugh with guitars.
HAIKU [
for Joanne
]
sweet woman dancing
your morning sails i see
your riverbound legs.
POEM
1.
i am dreaming
i have spread my dreams out like wings.
i have selected today a dream
about flying and i take off
sailing on your blue smile.
for today it is enough.
2.
all this year
i have heard
my pores
opening.
3.
i have told
you my name
so there is
tomorrow.
4.
see me through
your own eyes
i am here.
5.
let us be one with
the earth expelling anger
spirit unbroken.
6.
we are
only
passing
through let
us touch.
7.
come again inside
me let us take another
turn at loving.
8.
i hear your smell
running across my threshold.
shall i hold your breath?
Shake Loose My Skin
SONKU [
for Nneka and Quincy
]
love comes with
bone and sea
eyes and rivers
hand of man
tongue of
woman love
trembles at
the edge of
my fingers.
HAIKU
c’mon man hold me
touch me before time love me
from behind your eyes.
TANKA
c’mon man ride me
beyond smiles teeth corpuscles
come into my bloodstream
abandon yourself to smell let
us be a call to prayer.
POEM #3
I gather up
each sound
you left behind
and stretch them
on our bed.
each nite
I breathe you
and become high.
HAIKU
how still the morning sea
how still this morning skin
anointing the day.
SONKU
i feel your
mouth on my
thighs immac
ulate tongue.
SONKU
i hear the
sound of love
you unstring
like purple beads
over my breasts
HAIKU
i am who i am.
nothing hidden just black silk
above two knees.
HAIKU
in a season of
beautiful clowns betrayals
unapologetic.
HAIKU [
question from a young sister
]
1.
what’s wrong with being
freaky on stage you a stone
freak in yo own skin.
2.
at least we up front
about this freakdom. at least
we let it all hang out.
POEM
Good morning, sex. How do you do?
Tell me how life’s been treating you.
You say what? Sex is and sex ain’t
sex wuz and sex wuzn’t
sex should be and sex has been
on Times Square billboards
on television, in the movies,
in the lyrics dripping off pouting lips.
You say sex is in the drinks we drink
the laughs we laugh
the walk we walk
the smells we smell as we open
our eyes and legs and let the funk spread.
You say sex is dark basements
lights turned out, bodies turned on.
Sex is a breakfast table full of
leftover wine and smiles.
Sex is kinky & clean shaven
sex is straight & gay
sex is do it anyway.
Comes in twos and threes.
Comes on time. Late.
Sex is love. Unlove.
Comes with danger
&
beauty
Comes in clean and shadowy places.
Sex is life. Death. A gig.
Sometimes you need it in the
Morning. Afternoon. Evening.
Sometimes it satisfies; sometimes it don’t
sometimes you feel it in yo’ armpits
sometimes you feel it in the mind,
but ah,
ahhh
, when it comes
this sex, when it appears
buck naked or clothed,
when it comes Thelonious Monk–like jazzy,
when it comes hip hopping like the nite
ain’t like no other nite; ya
know what time it is, what day
it is, what month it is, what year
it is. When it comes RIGHT, you
understand that sex is & sometimes it ain’t
But when it is….
BLUES HAIKU
i ain’t yo momma
but i am this lil mama
who knows how to burn.
BLUES HAIKU [
for Joanne and Val
]
yall talkin all