the scholars who learned into junkies
the bigots begged to be cops
the people who watched from the post office
those loud cowards who fought on stages their tender parade unfists so bloodless
the day workers who stay for sale
the ones who you sold mama they pay you yet? Net netherwold
R E P A R A T I O N S
one repossessed corvette at a time Rahsaan's One Ton heckling climbers (social kind) off blue minor
lost men rolling in the mud miners blacker birds/ agents/ fat pillars Algerias of the will
desert men rolling on the water tongues lobbed out as dogs' soft bob of black sails
his atlanta now Atlantis-proud daughters binding plastic claws to their fingers and slabs of lotion as coarse as seafoam
cream and moans cream and only you atonal newday homeland se cure ity cured already parched flesh and salt
If you can imagine fleeing to Birmingham
then I can clothe that pregnant mannequin
and my role was to bring the press down, so that the day would not pass unnoticed flash
Daddy's distant eyes the way he hurled that lawnmower into oj's yard paid off the nervous bystanders , went back to his nap
from time to time , some of our more unruly ancestors were found floating face down
there is no refuge from confession but suicide , and suicide is confession
This is a red november
this is no place to sleep
with the liars who bled november
heaping salt into our wounds
the afternoon swooners shuffling across prison yards looking for anything to lift
their penniless women, free at last/ hissing whore hymns at the catch-all sun not him not him neither damned are the
trespassers fixing to hunt our ledge
