Uncustomarily, my grandpa followed
“I’m with her.” he said
She kept on walking
“You just try and stop me.” she said
The nurses told her it was past visiting hours
and she was not allowed into the newborn ward
to hold her first born granddaughter
One of my favorite stories
she did not tell me until until she was 93
about when she went to the hospital
to see me
on my birth day
Once I watched an artist
paint a bullet hole
an entryway in
I stood in front of it
and felt the air
raise mountains on my skin
That flesh wound
serenaded me
with a sonnet I already knew by heart
See, the blues is a hole
in your soul
that you can’t fill
So you rock
from your center
to soothe the injured parts of yourself
You sing
just to push the wind
through that long, dark tunnel
"Baby please don't go, baby please don't go
baby please don't go, down to New Orleans
you know I love you so."
Without a witness
a song might as well be whistled to oneself
and I whistle a different tune every day
Ten thousand whistles
can feel
like a hurricane
But it takes a hurricane
to redirect
the fourcefull course of a bullet
So if you know the words
then fill your lungs
with round after round
Spit blustery machine gun gusts
Aim for wisdom and wishes
Sling lyrics of faith and falicy
When the sound comes out, it will be yours
but you might also find
that it doesn’t just belong to you
Solo parts are plucked
from the belly
of an ancestral choir
The blues is poetry reincarnated
and vice versa
hence the vice in the verses
Paintings are life lessons
Asking questions
that have no answers
Only gifting us songs to sing
I pray that mine may be a balm
for someone elses soul
"Turn your lamp down low
You turn your lamp down lowTurn your lamp down low, I cried all night longNow baby please don't goMy uncle died
I had very little relationship with him
because he had relations with me
when I was very little
He was the angriest person I knew
Except for me
Now I am left
Desperately trying not to carry on that legacy
Anger is a virus
that my whole family carries
Living on lies and conspiracy theory
and passing without a vaccine
My uncle died
His heart failed him
'cuz he never learned
to have one
I dont know
if anyone ever gave him one
The only thing I do know
is that they gave him this sickness
They spread it all around
to the next generation
A legacy of literacy
in hopeless disassociation
My uncle died
Maybe I will feel something
if I keep repeating it
but I don’t
I dont even feel angry
Not a smidgen of relief
Not a sniffle
Or even a tickle in my throat
But I got my vaccination anyway
Because a virus never leaves the body
So I will make sure
it remains all mine
Foxes dance their way
through the landscape
Luring our gaze
as far from the den as possible
Slime molds slide
their neon lace
Seductively over the surface
though usually underground
Stars shine light so bright
crossing billions of years of space
Yet we can only see them
in the dark.
People often seek to find
But it is rarely what we do
I think of all the things I so need to say
And cant seem to push words out of my mouth
