Works Presented

it feels like war (los angeles, summer 92)		stay all morning
those who raped rosie		i testify
rose (4 tomieko)		lovene & louis
judith won't sing		poem 4 the end of love

Note: (000, YYMMDD) = the approximate Yahoo Message Board entry number and date.
Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and line phrasing are as originally posted by the author.

days fall like numbers & the numbers r never r's freeways littering the hot body of the afternoon avenues laying vericose in plastic repudiation like cancer hardened in2 glaucous crystals that fleck skin in warm sunlight everywhere 2day in a manner unfamiliar 2 me the city stands facing death

but no electricity calls 2day no bouyancy in the heat we r heavy like sicknesses pooling in ancient lungs this summer in 92 this season bleeding & gambling & us waiting 4 fire along the wide avenues & us cocooning r tired bodies in the incense of urban poverty & us deferring memory in2 dark rooms cut by neon

this summer like the metaphors genesised in rising aching hunger r literal needs broacast their tenets in 3 different pigeon dialects time rotating night across the world we walk the city through evenings laced in heat & blood we walk the city through shadows that steal vision & hold intellect captive

it feels like war this summer its snipers uneazy on the triggers its covert longings institutions & academic fortresses cities defining borders in summits that catalogue weaponry & assign concrete to corners the lack or ordinary communication the brevity of the cautious greetings the deliberate slowness of midnight brothas tantamount 2 coming violence it feels like war

Romus © Copyright, 1999

stay all morning in the warm hush of my arms lay & laugh among my covers yo hair disheveled in the torrent of my bed & blankets yo hairpins like tiny birds upon my dresser yo shoulders yo belly suggesting yo hips where the sheets r cool & longingly around u

stay all morning where r pleasure is gratuitous eat & smile & be here where u r the most beautiful brown powdered in cinnamon where everything is perfect & i long 2 paint long frescos of u in the heart of the waking city here where time touches u gently & i want u more than the coast & the caroling day this morning where r emergence from that perfumed & intimate darkness haz constructed a language physical & slow & draped in cool velevet yo lipstick like blooming dreams on my mouth the sliding kisses in my latenight delirium yo sleep rich thigh hanging now from the bed without fear & u smiling while yo eyes wander that late morning room documenting the crystal light

Romus © Copyright, 1999

those who raped rosie stand up those with her blood under their finger nails those whose erections accuse the body of tasting the sex of horror those whose erections dream of hurting rosie those erections accompanied by fists & feet in abandoned houses those men tatooed with profanity whose eyes r running sores claim this body this ripped rectum claim these bruised 30 yr old thighs u men brutalizing the world u men pissing in corners u men finding penises beneath yo bellies u men with fistfulls of crackhead flesh bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang

yes rosie waz an addict & sold her skinny body 4 dope & yes her people claim she's dead & yes she iz what we fear from r daughters that they will come home high & skinny & old & in love with some slow eyed animal down the midnight street whose pockets r full of sistuh's souls & yes no will care that there were 5 of u in that midnight house & that just becuz she waz an addict french kissing death in the alleys of r lives becuz she waz like painted sadness sat on corners 2 ward witches away becuz the shadows ached az they consumed her whole & examined her stuttering blackness does not mean that her holes were not private & u cannot have what u don't purchase & half of buying is still giving & sistuhs always retain the right 2 be respected & assault & pleasure iz sickness

u men who raped rosie who kicked in her teeth & stomped her amid the boxes who ejaculated deep in her blind death bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang

Romus © Copyright, 1999

i am 2 movement what jazz iz 2 music i am a million dawns in a testament 2 myself i am a mississippi blues singer wailing my story in the backwoods bottoms i am the poor guitar waiting 4 the bending note i am hope on the old slave's breath i am a janitor in the court building whistling the black national anthem at 2 am i am a night heavy with hungry children i am the last foodstamp with 3 days 2 go i am 4 brothas on a midnight ride through the countryside i am a leaking roof with another storm fisting across the delta i am a rusting cadilac in an overgrown field i am the bombed church in birmingham i am the dead little girl's shoe i am a mother who has lost her only sister i am 3 young brothas the morning after their hangings i am tragedy made commonplace by preachers i am a rain gutter in heat i am a weather report forecasting 2morrow's loneliness i am new orleans the disenfranchised watch my carnivals i am selma alabama black people crawl me like ants i am meridian mississippi my universities r bleeding i am tuscaloosa i once skinned a negro alive i am baton rouge funeral processions clot in my viens i am athens geogia sharecroppers cannot escape me i am littlerock arkansas i have keloided monuments i am shrievport lousiana & i wear the night like a shawl

in this place yo language iz your currency let me take u through the voices of an ageing south everything here slants beneath the sun & the moisture rings around r waists like memories crystalized in2 tears these fears standing near u r ancient 400 yrs reeled off in slow seconds a death scream breath by terrible breath i dance becuz spirits speak through me oh, timeless limpopo oh, shango oh, curving congo grand nile overflow overflow & the many me's that have died the nameless teeth found in southern soil the hands that once worked wood or copper or coal strong hands decomposed 2 the knuckle & the souls oh, the souls i am an expired congress i am a litany of people calling attention 2 their deaths heya yayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya wowowowowowowoaowoaowoaowoaowoaowoaowowoaowoaowoa baheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyhey minister singer tongue caught in my allegory heyyayayayayaayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya birth pains with moons & infant faces heyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya 1 generation addict a century from slavery heyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya underweight player on the verge of suicide heyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya cancer in the county worker's throat heyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya schyzophrenic uncle marking time in a perpetual vietnam heyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya bawoooooowooooooowoooooowooooooowooooowoooooo

i dance & the many places of my birth gather in my blood & i testify

(for daniel hobbs)

Romus © Copyright, 1999

oh in this town tumbleweeds tango & tantrum & trussel & trot absence learns from disguise repaints the buildings falsifies creeping rot oh, 2 tally 2 tincture 2 tomboy down alleys of all the tooteledge & teaching rose knows that no one here flies ventures in2 the great unknown no one here iz tops the grand fear of age & the highway whispers misfortune calls the children 2 gather then stops rose knows that the cars that come & go represent roses & railways & rolling roads & ribbons of rises & great ranges in ropes rose iz a child a pup rose is recalcitrant unreluctant & rambunctuos a riled up girl restless & reared up

but rose knows that she iz an entertainer trapped in a small theater in the redundant drama of the day rose knows that 2 live iz 2 create 2 abandon town & ride its roads away she acts she complains fakes ghastly pain scares her mother iz wild iz theatrical when she tantrums in the rain & what extravagant fancy what deviance 2 dance 2 get wet 2 double do 2 jump at such a chance in this tiny tumble weed town & ruin the new knit sweater & destroy the newly cuffed pants & run through the vacant city dreaming of romance

Romus © Copyright, 1999

lovene loved louis lingered in hiz laughter lollygagged & lay low looped a luminous world around him they loitered & lived slow lauded long afternoons 2gether & were never leary they learned & listened smiled & glistened lovene & louis showed the lovely how 2 love instructed them in beauty & bade them beautifully go

& they were young & quiet they were whisperers the far imprint of a generous sea they were worlds bad eachother "come spin" they were shy hills courting across a countryside in september they were the bend in a marvelous seaside road they were a new england harvest gathered in they were beautiful men and women & all their wonderful kin

& most heavenly of all they were poor gathering nickels saving dollars planning & sufficing working & plotting the nice & lovely pair lovene's braids sometimes a halo sometimes a decree sometimes a crown louis touched by her kiss foresaking the ground ballooned beyond beckoning hovered then touched down louis wore lovene like a sunday afternoon baptism & spread the good news around the windswept town

1 night in the cool of the waning autumn where stars shone brilliant against a universe az ancient az movement & az colorful az the pinwheeled dreams of summer children the city waz quiet an incandescent carnival set against the twinkling sky & the avenues were allowed their length & joyously ran & the skyscrapers allowed their strength & the bridges given their span & in the parking lot louis in hiz makeshift car coaxing the engine & prayed hiz lovene in the passenger's seat sat neat & straight the moon stayed & gave light powdering its glow across the perfumed city whose downtown's lofty ranges & heights juxtaposed & jaunted like javelins leaping in2 night & louis by might or meager portion by sideways inheritance or by right jangled the wires oh, the tight prayer that the starter catch its fire he wrangled the battery he kicked the tires louis declared all magic gone & az if 2 spite hiz profanity az if 2 grow a rose garden around the halfhearted tirade he'd begun the calico contraption turned on

& louis not chancing a glance at the gods not daring 2 interpret red not risking an outrageous movement not adjusting the cap on hiz head but wearing the world & all its wonder smiled at lovene she called him silly "really" he said & all the laughter of a long labor done filled the car & that evening nothing seemed very far az the avenues lay long & the traffic lights made way 4 memories & the lulling light comet tail of the day nearly gone & the stars strewn beautifully giving honor 2 the retiring sun repeating themselves in accumulative intensity across the sparkling universe unraveling its splendor planets ripening orange yellow fire crimson green gold & white at a quarter past 9 lovene & louis past the campus in that calico contraption through the city 2 where the constellations shine 2gether beyond the world with great great love 2 where the constellations shine

Romus © Copyright, 1999

in autumn cool winds blow breezy & vague they happenstance the leave let go they chance flight & old men dance & the evening r slow languid sunsets droop in2 starlit nights we smile we hold hands r precious & polite r litteral & the beautiful countryside iz sleepy its tired soils roll & the whispy crispy air at dusk tickles yr nose & anyone goes where anyone goes but somehow silently not 2 much red or yellow not green nor blue not heavy but quite heavier than before oh, autumn & its people its gray rock shores & large ivy covered wooden dusty doors goldleaf stones & early afternoon chores cold mornings & scarves the common bores of schools & uniforms peach & pear cobblers cinnamon & apple cores

judith iz a thinker whose mind click clicks reads & programs even silly things at 16 her mind iz quick with equations & formulas her skinny legs & long skirts ankle socks & simple rings her full-drawn shirts the pious rejection of the boys & oh, she refuses 2 sing her tight mouth defiant this skinny girl in chorus class like a needle against the noise oh, the giant of her refusal the stinging unwelcomed poise of a student who won't sing oh, the halting of all famous deep & richly jeweled joys

her teacher calls "judith judith! sing sing sing 2day u walked through that door & what a terror u bring u r out of line yr fancy, terrible, little girl a whirling dervish chaos disorder in rare form oh my lord, oh my world this is not polite with christmas only months away u must practice your carols" but judith did not move & the air in the chorus room heightened 2 a pitch the tension tightened 2 a fist her teacher would surely welcome any manner of noise would reject the hilarity of judith being off key would with great sincerity tolerate the girl's stray voice if judith would at last exhale & release the ransom & make the proper choice

but here in this hollow room where music is supposed to be here in the rising stalemate & doom the lack of air here in the awkward deafness like a placid clear sea movement iz foreign judith won't flinch the other students lean 2 watch but no caroling goes an inch & her equations run variables & halves diagrams & linears & loops calculations of steps along the path geometry & differentials gallons of water in a bath but no music no voice judith iz a stone "how strange" the other students think that she should stand alone with her ankle skirt & turtle neck draping off her bones but they thought it fun 2 have the day take a dip they thought it worthwhile in this situation a bit of sun the beautiful deviation of an afternoon a field trip

judith stood so long class ended had strung a pearl necklace out of silence had tended 2 a blooming womanhood exited the tense classroon valiant with no need 4 armor the teacher asked "judith waz it 4 anything that u so disappointingly disrupted class? exhibiting such recalcitrancy do u really intend 2 pass?" & judith said with her feet firmly planted on the ground "firstly, it waz u that disrupted class i hardly made a sound & i do sympathize with the institution christmas is upon us & i know we must rehearse but u must understand that of all musical things i do so much love counting the measures but i dread singing the verse"

Romus © Copyright, 1999

2night under the stars on beautiful hillsides in the lonely rush of early autumn i am remembering u 2night in the moonlit forest of my desire in the cool of my forever lonesome memory where yrs have laid miles & miles of forgotten roads in the vast & untilled country between us i am remembering u

sometimes when night comes & the city lights itself in sections like a lazy carnival & i watch with the same eyes that gathered in every turn u made every smile after making love & sometimes az the night sky stretched its blue black veils above us & leaked darkness in2 r little place when the furniture became gray shapes & r perfectly formed youth hovered suspended in velvet anticipation in the disappearing twilight u would be warm against me & yr nakedness the most beautiful thing in the fading world

oh, if i were 2 live again & meet u 1 day in the school halls oh, if i were capable of such rare magic in the presence of unabated freedom if i were 2 touch u again 4 the 1rst time in the coming dark it would be to thrill my soul with endless early autumns it would be 2 love in small apartments on weekends in cities where hunger didn't exist & if u loved me in return like u used 2 & kissed me like the earth would end & made love among the blue covers az the rainy harbor lay still & attentive listening 2 the distant electricity of the starlit universe sadly there would be moments lost like laughter in2 the september air & of course there would be pleasure ran through like beautiful towns left unexplored & yes ther would be sleep after joy when we were careless & forgot & the exquisite drunken warm heaviness lulled us away from love but september preparing its leaves 2 fall when the world returns 2 its marching business among the traffic & harbors once again industrial & ominously lit will be r's even if all else fails i take the mooncurved scars of r parting i take the moon & miracled madness i take the harbors we left unloved yes, & the candlelit sadness & the kisses each 1 wrapped in yr beautiful smile i take the rainy midnight earth & slick avenues where miles after mile invited us 2 walk & know 1 another well i take the smell of u on my covers when yet another year pushes its girth between u & i i take what i have & painfully accept what i don't & move on

Romus © Copyright, 1999