Hold for three, then twist and jerk.
Cross the line, they count you out.
That's what hopping's all about.
Both feet flat, the game is done.
They think I lost. I think I won.
To PAUL
Pickin Em Up and Layin Em Down
There's a long-legged girl
in San Francisco
by the Golden Gate.
She said she'd give me all I wanted
but I just couldn't wait.
I started to
Pickin em up
and layin em down, Pickin em up
and layin em down, Pickin em up
and layin em down, gettin to the next town Baby.
There's a pretty brown
in Birmingham.
Boys, she little and cute
but when she like to tied me down
I had to grab my suit and started to
Pickin em up
and layin em down,
Pickin em up
and layin em down,
Pickin em up
and layin em down,
gettin to the next town
Baby.
I met that lovely Detroit lady
and thought my time had come
But just before I said “I do”
I said “I got to run” and started to
Pickin em up and layin em down,
Pickin em up and layin em down,
Pickin em up and layin em down,
gettin to the next town
Baby.
There ain't no words for what I feel
about a pretty face
But if I stay I just might miss
a prettier one some place
I started to
Pickin em up and layin em down,
Pickin em up and layin em down,
Pickin em up and layin em down,
gettin to the next town
Baby.
Here's to Adhering
I went to a party
out in Hollywood,
The atmosphere was shoddy
but the drinks were good,
and that's where I heard you laugh.
I then went cruising
on an old Greek ship,
The crew was amusing
but the guests weren't hip,
that's where I found your hands.
On to the Sahara
in a caravan,
The sun struck like an arrow
but the nights were grand,
and that's how I found your chest.
An evening in the Congo
where the Congo ends,
I found myself alone, oh
but I made some friends,
that's where I saw your face.
I have been devoting
all my time to get
Parts of you out floating
still unglued as yet.
Won't you pull yourself together
For
Me
ONCE
On Reaching Forty
Other acquainted years
sidle
with modest
decorum
across the scrim of toughened
tears and to a stage
planked with laughter boards
and waxed with rueful loss.
But forty
with the authorized
brazenness of a uniformed
cop stomps
no-knocking
into the script
bumps a funky grind on the
shabby curtain of youth
and delays the action.
Unless you have the inborn
wisdom
and grace
and are clever enough
to die at
thirty-nine.
The Telephone
It comes in black
and blue, indecisive
beige. In red and chaperons my life.
Sitting like a strict
and spinstered aunt
spiked between my needs and need.
It tats the day, crocheting
other people's lives
in neat arrangements,
ignoring me,
busy with the hemming
of strangers’ overlong affairs or
the darning of my
neighbors’ worn-out dreams.
From Monday, the morning of the week,
through mid-times
noon and Sunday's dying
light. It sits silent.
Its needle sound
does not transfix my ear
or draw my longing to a close.
Ring. Damn you!
Passing Time
Your skin like dawn
Mine like dusk.
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
The other, the end of a
sure beginning.
Now Long Ago
One innocent spring
your voice meant to me
less than tires turning
on a distant street.
Your name, perhaps spoken,
led no chorus of
batons
unrehearsed
to crush against my
empty chest.
That cool spring
was shortened by
your summer, bold, impatient
and all forgotten
except when silence
turns the key
into my midnight bedroom
and comes to sleep upon your
pillow.
Greyday
The day hangs heavy
loose and grey
when you're away.
A crown of thorns
a shirt of hair
is what I wear.
No one knows
my lonely heart
when we're apart.
Poor Girl
You've got another love
and I know it
Someone who adores you
just like me
Hanging on your words
like they were gold
Thinking that she understands
your soul Poor Girl
Just like me.
You're breaking another heart
and I know it And there's nothing
I can do
If I try to tell her
what I know
She'll misunderstand
and make me go
Poor Girl
Just like me.
You're going to leave her too
and I know it She'll never know
what made you go
She'll cry and wonder
what went wrong Then she'll begin
to sing this song
Poor Girl
Just like me.
Come. And Be My Baby
The highway is full of big cars
going nowhere fast
And folks is smoking anything that'll burn
Some people wrap their lives around a cocktail glass
And you sit wondering
where you're going to turn.
I got it.
Come. And be my baby.
Some prophets say the world is gonna end tomorrow
But others say we've got a week or two
The paper is full of every kind of blooming horror
And you sit wondering
What you're gonna do.
I got it.
Come. And be my baby.
Senses of Insecurity
I couldn't tell fact from fiction
or if my dream was true,
The only sure prediction
in this whole world was you.
I'd touched your features inchly,
heard love and dared the cost.
The scented spiel reeled me unreal
and found my senses lost.
Alone
Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my so
ul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
‘Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Communication I
She wished of him a lover's kiss and
nights of coupled twining.
They laced themselves
between the trees
and to the water's edge.
Reminding her
the cratered moon lay light-years away,
he spoke of Greece, the Parthenon
and Cleopatra's barge.
She splayed her foot
up to the shin
within the ocean brine.
He quoted Pope and Bernard Shaw
and Catcher in the Rye.
Her sandal lost,
she dried her toe
and then she mopped her brow.
Dry-eyed
she walked into her room
and frankly told her mother,
“Of all he said, I understood
he said he loved another.”
Communication II
FOR ADELE
The Student
The dust of ancient pages
had never touched his face,
and fountains black and comely
were mummied in a place
beyond
his young un-knowing.
The Teacher
She shared the lettered strivings
of etched Pharaonic walls
and Reconstruction's anguish
resounded down the halls
of all her
dry dreams.
Wonder
A day
drunk with the nectar of
nowness
weaves its way between
the years
to find itself at the flophouse
of night
to sleep and be seen
no more.
Will I be less
dead because I wrote this
poem or you more because
you read it
long years hence.
A Conceit
Give me your hand.
Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.
Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and love of loss
of love.
For me
Give me your hand.
Request
If this country is a bastard
will the lowdown mother user
who ran off
and left the woman
moaning in her
green delivery
please come back and claim
his love child.
Give a legal name to beg from
for the first
time of its life.
Africa
Thus she had lain
sugarcane sweet
deserts her hair
golden her feet
mountains her breasts
two Niles her tears.
Thus she has lain
Black through the years.
Over the white seas
rime white and cold
brigands ungentled
icicle bold
took her young daughters
sold her strong sons
churched her with Jesus
bled her with guns.
Thus she has lain.
Now she is rising
remember her pain
remember the losses
her screams loud and vain
remember her riches
her history slain
now she is striding
although she had lain.
America
The gold of her promise
has never been mined
Her borders of justice
not clearly defined
Her crops of abundance
the fruit and the grain
Have not fed the hungry
nor eased that deep pain
Her proud declarations
are leaves on the wind
Her southern exposure
black death did befriend
Discover this country
dead centuries cry
Erect noble tablets
where none can decry
“She kills her bright future
and rapes for a sou
Then entraps her children
with legends untrue”
I beg you
Discover this country.
For Us, Who Dare Not Dare
Be me a Pharaoh
Build me high pyramids of stone and question
See me the Nile
at twilight
and jaguars moving to
the slow cool draught.
Swim me Congo
Hear me the tails of alligators
flapping waves that reach
a yester shore.
Swing me vines, beyond that baobab tree,
and talk me chief
Sing me birds
flash color lightening through bright green leaves.
Taste me fruit
its juice free-falling from
a mother tree.
Know me
Africa.
Lord, in My Heart
FOR COUNTEE CULLEN
Holy haloes
Ring me round
Spirit waves on
Spirit sound
Meshach and
Abednego
Golden chariot
Swinging low
I recite them
in my sleep
Jordan's cold
and briny deep
Bible lessons
Sunday school
Bow before the
Golden Rule
Now I wonder
If I tried
Could I turn my
cheek aside
Marvelling with
afterthought
Let the blow fall
saying naught
Of my true Christlike
control
And the nature
of my soul
Would I strike with
rage divine
Till the culprit
fell supine
Hit out broad all
fury red
Till my foes are
fallen dead
Teachers of my
early youth
Taught forgiveness
stressed the truth
Here then is my
Christian lack:
If I'm struck then
I'll strike back.
Artful Pose
Of falling leaves and melting
snows, of birds
in their delights
Some poets sing
&
nbsp; their melodies
tendering my nights
sweetly.
My pencil halts
and will not go
along that quiet path.
I need to write
of lovers false
and hate
and hateful wrath
quickly.
The Couple
Discard the fear and what
was she? Of rag and bones
a mimicry of woman's
fairy-ness
Archaic at its birth.
Discharge the hate and when
was he? Disheveled moans
a mimesis of man's
estate
deceited for its worth.
Dissolve the greed and why
were they? Enfeebled thrones
a memory of mortal
kindliness
exiled from this earth.
The Pusher
He bad
O he bad
He make a honky
poot. Make a honky's
blue eyes squint