Pitfalls

The end of this doesn't work as well on paper as it might if spoken. So I guess I will, a) have to work on being less white and doing a spoken piece, and b) figuring out how to boom boom mmm ahhk and not sound white. Basically, I think I have to learn how to beat box, otherwise this will never work. So I guess I just have to ratify the piece so it becomes a paper poem, where both of us are more in our element.



Pitfalls of Interpretive Dancing on a Blue Stomach


Out of place in
a Manhattan
warehouse bar
ducked into to
duck out of rain
and adolescent
blues these decades
haven’t quite
matured, she
found some sort
of refuge in sitting
next to but not
speaking with the
similarly sullen
soul across the
cocktail table until
the MC made last
call and they threw
their hands up,
squeezing between

boom boom mmm ahhk

and

boom boom psss

dancing interpretively,
telling the story not
of creation

boom boom mmm ahhk

not of dust
to dust

boom boom psss

not of her white middle
class teenage escapades
through Coo Coo Cal’s
projects to get to the south,
southside where that Latino
beat lingered like cilantro
and poblano trees called
telephone poles; where
the strange misplaced
Mexican rhythm making
red the marrow of her
Norwegian-Polish pelvis
found kinetic kinship

boom boom mmm ahhk

not of his genealogical
agave roots from Puerto
Escondido to Mexico
City to San Diego to San
Jose, because his popi may
have hand-picked his way
from a clay-floor heritage
to the land of linoleum and
plenty, but he was born in a
suburban Colorado hospital,
crooning an Old Blue Eyes
bit as soon as the nurse wiped
the placenta from his mouth
and he exhaled his first antiseptic
inhale with Websterian diction
and perfect pitch

boom boom psss

not of love

boom boom mmm ahhk

not of lust

boom boom psss

but of something only
syllables and grunts
could convey, something
their ancient bodies
knew, their ancient
bones wanted to tell

boom boom mmm ahhk

if only

boom boom psss

it were
the time

boom boom mmm ahhk

for their
infant
thoughts

boom boom psss

to understand

boom boom mmm ahhk

to let the
beat drop

boom boom psss

to let the
beat become,
be the creation,
the dust to dust,
the destruction,
the story, the
myth and the
word of the
rib made woman

boom boom mmm ahhk

boom boom psss
boom boom mmm ahhk

boom boom psss