prelude to that jazz performance (23/30)

mic-check
one two one...

blank.

i cant get this right
i've been pushin it all night

gleaming smile
and effortless wow
then I'm reborn, like
Sarah Vaughan
how I'd wished to be

instead trying to check
this mic
wondering what
comes after one
when its obviously
two

break.

out goes the lyrics
in comes the critics

lights.

Ella is not too far
from Frank
i hope
'cause I'm still
stuck on this mic-

check
one two one...

null and void pt.2 (null) (22/30)

null street
concrete as tattered as we made it
maybe years ago
still here
and worth walking down
and up

2 full blocks of street lights
without lights
and powerless for the next
5 hours

dealers on the corner
next to double dutchers
and bus stop hopefuls
stereos pushing limits
killing kids on the forth floor
trying to do their algebra
while cops circle looking
for a reason to ride slow

empty streets
full of life
the kind
you never
saw on tv

so its nothing
but one word

its this thing now... (21/30)

hair straight from the 60s
shirt less than more, these
slacks go far back
(as her mothers closet)
but its fresh they lack
not from the store
but from the shelf
retro evermore
designs by herself
had the meaning of a thousand
words stitched into it pockets
reaped the benefits of a radical
whose style reversed the clock, its
creases put the pieces of the puzzle
into complete perspective,
left the crowd a hopeless jumble
with a sign "cool resurrected",
and the truths of stylistic findings
is in the closet
where she left it,
woulda screamed MURDER
to those who stunted like the kept it,
singing
"joe you coulda got it if you neva woulda stressd it"

probate (20/30)

lined and chained
by the arms
and by vows
a complete dedication
to conformity

years upon years
of that same line
on this same grass
and concrete

everything leads
up to this
the deep howls
and screeches
stomps and cries
rooted formalities
and hopeful
uneducated crowds
who prey
on nights like this

thursday nights at soul (19/30)

the thing about
Thursday nights is the
congregation to this one place
we call soul
not for the food
for the DJ
for the opportunity to see
other tanned skin
(at least for those who are deprived)

didn't we know
there is a room
across the hall
where the white
and Asians eat
the same meal?

we wonder why
they would want these
dried pork chops
and
candy yams.

I wonder if we
would do the same
for them.

title (18/30)

I see past those
calm gestures
and cool respoonses

How you hop
to your feet
so easily
we your done
with me,
just to initiate
our title

Is that loveless
you say you've been
before?

You grab for my hand
when it gets too heavy
then push it away
biting just enough
to hurt yet help

Loveless I wished to be.

Don't worry
I know
I'm a replacement
just as much
as you are

a clean bed.(17/30)

as my forgetful fate
would have it
I lost a lot of
things today
but still not you

they say you
can't turn over
the sheets
and expect
a clean
bed

turned those sheets I have
over and over
tainted is
my bed
spoiled are these sheets
in effort to forget

but still there you are

scratching the crevices
of my bellowing mind
there you lurch
testing
its sanity

(open) relationships (16/30)

Freedom is but a privilege
at first
evolving from a choice
answering larger confrontations
that were desired to be
let free
But everybody knows
they are meant to be
contained
elaborated and reiterated

-relationships 101-

but truthfully nobody knows
So let it be
like the bees
and the birds would
Let it so effortlessly
I'm sure they've seen
us
(and heard us)
when we are we
every other week
or 3
(openly, that is)