Featured Writer of the Month

D.J. Parhams

THE SYNOPSYS: After a hard life on the streets of the south side of Chicago, 28 year old Annie Mae, a Blues singer, returns home for the first time in 10 years to face her troubled past, a past that is permeated with violence, bloodshed, drugs and deceit. Can she finally gain the acceptance of her overbearing, manipulative and mentally-ill mother? Can Annie Mae come to terms with her own life altering secret, a secret that is sure to shatter her life and the lives of those around her? Every issue through November we'll be adding an excerpt from D.J. Parhams’ exceptional book here on the Poet’s Bench.

You will be able to feel the rumble of the El passing overhead and see the sparks pop and fly off the tracks.

You’ll smell the inside of Chicago juke joints and the sexual sweat of South Side hotel rooms. The Annie Mae’s of our existence have a presence that’s indelible. They are as much a part of our collective psyche as is the blues. She is irresistible, she’s unforgettable and she’s now available at Amazon.com. We hope you'll pick-up a copy. So come on and sit down on the Poet’s Bench with D.J. Parhams while she chops up game about “THE BLUES for ANNIE MAE”.

Excerpt #7

Although the A.C. is running full blast there's an unbearable heat in the bar, a yanking at your clothes kinda heat. And there's a peculiar stench that rest right below the heat, a sour almost vinegar like smell. And there's a heart beat of tension, it seems as if the littlest thing, like a spilt drink can criss-cross into a whip-flash of anger.

And Christine is different too. She is late coming on stage, which is something she will never do. And she acts like the audience isn't even there. She walks to the edge of the stage and careens her neck, squints her eyes and she sees somebody there, a special somebody.

And she sucks in a deep breath that she refuses to let go of. And she takes a couple of steps back ( almost stumbling back), she slowly shakes her head and bites down her lip as if she's biting down on a hard piece of regret. And a cloud of pain covers that child's face, a cloud I ain't never seen before. Confident Christine is gone. And in her place is a confused, almost child-like little something. She shakes her head again and she turns and whispers something to Shady Grady.And Grady nods his head and takes hold of the mike and says, "We're gonna do it a little differently for y'all tonight. We're going down: all the way down home y'all. We're gonna give y'all a taste of the real blues, the low-down Mississippi, pot lickin' Delta Blues. And we're gonna put the blue back into the Blues."

And every song that child sings, it isn't bumping and thumping anymore, there all slow and low. She sings about the good times she let get away and how she allows all the bad times to stay. Christine sings about stirring the blues into her morning coffee, and how it lumps up on her pillow at night. And after each song she sorta shakes her head, like she's trying to fight off something, something that's too strong and too powerful.. Her eyes glaze over with a thin sheet of regret. And for a moment she bends over, grabs her knee and covers her mouth as if she's trying to squelch that powerful piece of something down, And you can just TELL that she's singing all lof this to one somebody in the audience.

And that's when I notice that it's a new customer at the bar this night, someone I have never seen before. He's a lone dark-skinned man, with slick backed hair and he sits at the bar with a freshly pressed white suit on. He sits there sipping on his whiskey, puffing deep and hard on his cigarettes, with a knowing squint in his eyes. And Christine moves her hips witha slow ,desperate groove. And it seems to me as if that smoke from that man's cigarette is dancing, swaying, and flaying right along with that girl.
And at one point that girl is begging so hard for that man's love, she snatches the mike from the stand, drops to her knees and bends at the waist like she's about to hurl, hurl up all of love's pain, all of love's injustice! And that girl hollers, " Further on that road you're gonna find you're the one for me. OOh further on down that road, you’re gonna find you're the one for MMMEEEEE. WELL, WELL, remember that I told ya that I loved ya, a love that will always BEEEEEEE!" (BA.. BOOM..PA. PA PA..BOOM..) "Some how (BOOM) ! Some WAAAAY (BOOM)!"And a pulse of angry red light thunders and flashes against her skin., and flashes and thunders again. "WHHAAOOOOH ya gonna FIIIIINNNNND ....I said YA gonna FIIIINNND...you're the ONNNNE for MEEEEEEE!" And Lord, Lord a liquid pain falls from that child eyes. A liquid pain that hits the floor, a liquid pain that slides down her sequined dress, a liquid pain that hits, swirls and shoots, like a water sprinkler.
And Christine looks up, and for one moment, one long moment, their eyes burn together, connect together. Christine doesn't move, as if she can't move. And without taking his eyes off of her...his power off of her, with one