Category Archives: poetry

On the occasion of my father’s retirement from 37 years of service to the Prince George’s County Public Schools, I delivered this poem.

from beard to bald, pre-K to 6
i swear, there is a time i remember
when my dad had hair
brown like mine
a poet might say he sacrificed it for the kids
(because of the kids)
but we know better

Mr. Tucker, i like that hat
now take it off.
Bill Cosby sweater and sit com morals for every story
come into my office, sit down, let’s talk
K through 12 and beyond
young eyes realize Continue reading →

wear your relationship status on your finger like a slavery certificate that says “mozel tov!”
wear your heartache under your eyes like a concealer that costs way too much but can’t be returned
wear it proudly
let it burn in the eyes of jealous jackals
wear your regrets under your shoes
like dirty socks, few holes
unseen

like miners
searching for beauty
in your eyes
finding only rocks

wear your rocks on your head like stunner shades at night
“look at me now”
says the rich girl
wearing inequality around her waist
and race-is-um her tiara
she’s a terror, it’s
killin em

in the streets and behind closed doors
in magazines and photo shoots like gun ranges
on the top floor
bottoms on. top off.
we’re on the floor
dancing, and
they’ve got us somehow able to ignore
the well-funded worldwide brutal war
destroying her mother earth
like miners
digging digital death certificates into our minds
and throwing rocks in the air
hoping to find solid ground
in a man’s ice chest.

while hanging out at City at Peace DC today, i rearranged some of the words on the freezer door to make this poem below. i have a photo of it, but my phone is acting up, so here are the words. let me know what you think, and if you have an idea for a title.

they dress her in a lie
worship size as diamond
a thousand girls go here
none stop to say no
it aches me to watch
the void
her shake
him boy
their lake
she rain
mistake
what could one think all it was
not love
the show is
a frantic rose
or red blue road
flooded with enormous
stares

for a symphony of sad
a poet speaks
regrets
and repeats

life like a cypher
a poet speaks
we’d like to like her

you’d like to light her

see reality’s thunderclap
just behind your eyes
the moment her lightening strikes your skies

a poet speaks

to the hidden and hiding
the forbidden and the biding
the waiters and the takers
a poet speaks

with acres of mass
and no real
estate

what is the opposite of an island?
that is where you’ll find her
buried and digging
with light on all sides
so you can’t see the shadows
a poet speaks

years from the chest
through peers put to rest
and fears manifest
overcoming or coping
your ears can attest
this here’s not the best
but the greatest
a poet speaks

and the weight is like
power
to truth
and vice a versa
it seems life’s a curse a million
magicians cast on the downtrodden
who can’t see the blessings
changing costume and accent
trying to act like cursed words
in young mouths over
backs bent into
his verbs and
her shouts
we hear
a poet speak

and have no doubt
there is weakness
providing all that strength

there is a flexible forest
swaying through the curses
in your chest
rising hundreds of feet from
your windpipes
when them lights get low
beneath your canopy
it may not be the the prettiest show
but it is, and you are, undeniably
the greatest star we see
disguised as a seed
coming up from the dirt

a poet speaks
grassroots twinkle
foreshadowing what’s to come
when fully realized
one
life changes
and one
love
lives

in the words she
you
me
a poet
speaks

this is not my best performance ever. not my worst either. it certainly was fun though.