Spoken Word: F**k I Look Like
Kai Davis expresses her experiences with stereotypes and prejudice in the classroom…with attitude.
Poems
Philly Story #389
The sub rocks me into a slippery self consciousness
So me and Marley fold into my seat and start jamming
We jamming
Blasting through the microcosmic speakers
riding each lazy beat with euphoric glee
when across from me
this dude twists up his face
the other passengers scramble
like frantic cockroaches about to be smushed
I look
300 pound bowling ball of a man stands with a gun in his hand
waving as if he was princess Diane
I dam near lose a bowel movement
Tripping over people to get to the exit quick
What kind of shit is this that I just witnessed
I was trying to get to work and handle my business
Now I got lateness all on my plate
Damn. It had to be today.
Letters Found Near a Suicide (To Mother)
I came
in the blinding sweep
of ecstatic pain,
I go
in the throbbing pulse
of aching space–
in the aeons between
I piled upon you
pain on pain
ache on ache
and yet as I go
I shall know
that you will grieve
and want me back…
–Frank Horne
My soul has gro…
My soul has grown deep like the rivers
–Langston Hughes
(excerpt from the Negro Speaks of Rivers)
Oceans
I have a feeling that my boat
has struck, down there in the depths,
against a great thing.
against a great thing.
And nothing
happens! Nothing!… Silence… Waves…
–Nothing happens? Or has everything happened,
and are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?
Juan Ramón Jiménez (translated by Robert Bly)
Farewell
Maybe on graduation day
I’ll sit there
with my last moments as a student
comforting the soul in my lap
courage will kick up in my chest
and I’ll wave good bye to this place,
The known.
I might baby step
Or barrel roll
Or nonchalantly tip my cap
to all you have made me
then stroll into the future’s night
with all the cares in the world
chalk up the deuces
and bid farewell
as I smile at my useless euphemisms
attempting not to cry
tears of apprehension
sadness
Or joy
I’ve sipped joe with the Josies
and learned from the best
for all, I am grateful
Now
onto face the rest
American Heartbreak
I am the American heartbreak–
The rock on which Freedom
Stumped its toe–
The great mistake
That Jamestown made
Long ago
–Langston Hughes
How Many
Pyaar
Leber
Amor
Agape
Love
How many other freaking ways do you want me to say it
Philly Story #7: Poker Face
See they was giving out iced teas
you know how they give out free stuff sometimes in center city
i had a bunch of iced teas
and wouldnt you know it
i have to pee again
i done peed four times already she said
burning green hazel pupils
searching for sympathy
white wrinkled caramel skin
i went to the library, peed
down to the um PECO, peed
in the Burlington Coat Factory, peed
and just before i got on
this bus ride so doggone long
Jeesusss
Jeesusss
sometimes we be…
sometimes we be so close
i can cop his pulse
and think it’s my heart that i
hear
in my ears. uh. now ain’t that love?
–Carolyn M. Rodgers (excerpt from “Now Ain’t That Love?”)
The Poetry Corner 