Posts for June 21, 2019 (page 3)

Do you remember Richie Havens singing “Freedom”?  I do.
Do you remember the rain temporarily stopping the music?  I do.
Do you remember John Sebastian forgetting the words and asking the audience for help?  I do.
Do you remember Sha Na Na singing “At the Hop”?  I do.
Do you remember the warning about the brown acid?  I do.

Peace and love.
Tuning in, turning on, dropping out.
Rain and more rain.

Do you remember Arlo Guthrie singing “Coming into Los Angeles”?  I do.
Do you remember Joe Cocker singing “With a Little Help From My Friends”?  I do.
Do you remember Country Joe and the Fish, Santana, The Band, Jefferson Airplane and The Who?  I do.
Do remember Jimi Hendrix playing his version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”?  I do.

I remember these things.
I wasn’t there.
But I saw the movie.

I can’t turn the book’s pages
and my arms turn to stumps.
My armlessness is painless,
my books begin to float.

Mother will not like this, I think, 
then remember that she’s dead. 
I no longer know her
expectations. Gone for five

years and me with no fingers
on which to count them. Is she
studying thermodynamics?
Does she view my books

like flocks of birds? Their flights
are miraculous and clumsy in
empty spaces where my palms
and fingers were once enslaved.

This day is an island.
Twirl and in all directions
you’ll see blue sky.

The air weighs less
than a lily’s breath
and bustles with bluebirds.

Weeds and crops
hang the past out to dry
then sprint to new records.

Flames of lantana
warm the puzzle of twigs
the wrens are solving.

On calmed creek’s banks
elderberry blooms dance
a finale with tutued clouds.
 
The sun’s overstuffed
trunk of warmth
will be packed up

tight by evening
strapped with thunderclaps
for the cruise home.

Nonagenarian  

Some call em Grandfather or Granddad, Grandpa or Gramps.
In my family we call him Papaw.  
Papaw always sits at the head of the table
during holiday meals, always sits at the front
of the living room while we open Christmas
gifts. Then one year he gave up his seat at
the table for me. He did
this for 2 reasons: #1. So I could
easily pull my wheelchair up to the table.
#2. So someone could easily sit beside
me to help me eat. Nothing breaks all day tradition
besides Papaw’s compassion.   

I know the world wants you to see us 
as something to pity. 
I know the likes of Taylor Swift and JD Vance want you to think we’re still in the dark ages.

But make no mistake. 

We are as submissive as we are barefoot
we are timid as we are uneducated 

we have a mouth full of  teeth 

ready to bite the hand that tries to feed  us the narrative that we are less because of where we come from.

bees
in the lavender 
zen space

it seems like these fucking days
half my friends are fucking for fun
fucking scared of ending up with by-products
like crabs or, fucking worse, kids;
a group of fucking unfortunate ones
aren’t getting fucking lucky at all
because of their looks or fucking personality;
some fucking crazy ones
fucking reproducing like rabbits
and ruining the fucking planet for the rest of us;
the lucky fucking ones,
getting it fucking on and enjoying being
able to stay in the fucking moment;
while the fucking saddest cases of all
are the ones denied by their own fucking bodies
which keep the fucking purpose from coming to fruition–

our fucking parents
fucked our fucking generations notions about fucking
and there’s not a fucking thing we can do about it

Smile
It isn’t so bad and
you will be prettier and
It would make

Me(n)

Happy.

It is so simple to spin the dial
Breezy
–Smile with your eyes & make your voice high & let him carry your books even though you’re the one with enough rage coursing through you every damn day that you could lift a pickup truck–

Pluck
the cherries from the wild tree Grown
Of itself, without need for validation.

Squeeze
the juice, dark red, into your palm

Press
Crimson palms to your lips. Turn them up, at the edges.

Aren’t you just so pretty?

Grind the pits, pulpy with cosmetic, into a fine paste.

The ancient ones inside will tell you mortar
&pestle

But your Cuisinart food processor will do just fine.

Add confectioner sugar and vanilla. Frost the cake.

When he blows out the candle, he won’t say his wish out loud.

Neither will you.

One will come true.

Smokin on a black and mild
that shit just take me back in time
i hope that you can crack a smile
when you think bout me
but that might be askin too much
i remember when
everything was sinkin around me 
go head pass that huge blunt
in what i’m drinkin i’m drownin 
what the fuck do you want 
you drainin my battery 
i need to recharge
why you make me hit you with this savagery 
now i went too far 
lose my marbles
just so you can pick em up and sculpt a new reality 

chisel away at a better day 
chisel a way for a better day
but today feel just like yesterday
sometimes it feel like things will never change (never change)
but it changin all around me
lost in my thoughts and that’s right where you found me 
forgot how many times i let myself down 
but who’s countin 
time been drownin in youth’s fountain
please don’t kick me out these bars 
where all you bouncin 

i been sea floor
i been up too
what you been up to 
i’m just tryna be more
what about you
had to take a detour 
my tank i gotta fill up
go Seymore (see more)
i’m (H)off man
i’m (H)off man 
i aint fraid to admit that i’m off man 
i’m off man
i just been so exhausted 

Smokin on a black and mild 
that shit just take me back in time
i hope that you can crack a smile
when you think bout me
but that might be askin too much
i remember when 
everything was sinkin around me
go head pass that huge blunt
in what i’m drinkin i’m drownin 
what the fuck do you want
you drainin my battery
i need to recharge
why you make me hit you with this savagery 
now i went too far
lose my marbles
just so you can pick em up and sculpt a new reality 

Give me kind eyes because
eyes are why saints see God
and sinners see sin                  
                                    I want eyes 
that effortlessly pump compassion
from the ground of experience
as if kindness were oil
Buddha were Exxon
and I were a young girl laughing
without thinking why.