DELIGHT

_______

Potato starch,

Soy sauce,

Garlic granules,

Vegetable broth

Is how the whole thing begins.

Then add

Dollops of tahini.

Nut-like taste.

Easy to remember.

Then add

To pool of olive oil

Minced garlic

And seitan strips,

The primary element.

Then add

Secondary element,

Chopped criminis.

These will make

The mixture sing.

...

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THE LAMENT CONFIGURATION

_________________________

Time to play.

You find an unusual relic.

A golden puzzle box of unknown origin.

You hold it in both hands.

Turn a corner, turn another and another.

You feel the slice of a blade

In the palm of your hand. Drop the box--

Which lifts, changes shape. The puzzle solves itself.

Plays a short tune. The wall sp...

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FOXY

_____

You never forget your first

Infatuation.

Mine was the big thing

Decades before 

Other honeys 

Entered the picture.

Soul Cinema action queen

Did her own stunts,

Did her own Afro,

Wasted no time

Kicking ass on the big screen.

First of her kind.

The baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town!

Mine had no is...

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TWO MODELS

___________

"Game recognises game"

Popular saying

Used in some 

Black people's 

Conversations

Normally blurted out

When someone sees

Their best qualities

In another.

Example given:

Back in the 1950s,

A Florida 

Cheesecake model

Didn't want to 

Limit herself to being

Before flashing cameras.

So she switched positio...

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SILVER OVER EYES

_______________

Silver over eyes

Modest payment

Left for hooded Charon

For the boat voayge across

The river Styx into that feared long black silence.

Two silver dollars

Laid upon closed

Lids of eyes.

This is your estimated worth.

A misspent existence and it yielded

Silver over eyes.

Cold round slivers. They're only tr...

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TO AN APPARITION

________________

How could you forsake

The affection I

Gave to you?

How could you forsake

The affection you'd

Given back?

How could you forget

The affection we'd 

Mutually felt?

Aren't artists

And writers

Good enough

For you anymore?

Are the strange ones

Scaring you

That much?

Why did you detest

Black people

So sudde...

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DISCOVERY [ EXCERPT ]

___________________

Patrolling the street

On the Brooklyn beat

Wasn't enough for

Jerry Tibbs.

The married N.Y.P.D. officer

On some days would shed 

His dark blue uniform & wore

The sable one he was

Born with.

Just a man enjoying his spare time,

His busy hands worked a camera.

On Coney Island's 

White sandy beach,

He found...

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DEEP NORTH

__________

Headed for the "promised land" in droves

Attracted to bright urban lights

Like a swarm of sepia-toned moths,

They arrive

In search of work,

Safer homes,

Altars to pray to,

In search of the peace that

Living in the so-called

"Bible Belt" did not give them.

What kind of god

Would allow his own children to

Endure the jail cel...

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PEWTER HEART

_____________

Lost:

One small metallic

Treasure, laying untouched in blades of grass.

Heart-shaped,

Pewter-made,

Chain connected to its form.

A love 

Freely given,

Refused in disgust.

Never kept,

Never worn,

Tossed into the tall green grass

Like a shiny hunk of trash,

Grown cold,

Left to rust.

Found:

B...

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FLAMETHROWER

_____________

My internal spirit of rebellion

Is far from calm--

Incendiary

Anger builds

Single spark ignites

Observing injustice

From figures of authority,

Power moves, prejudice--

Inferno in the making

Refusing to be

The next victim, the next pawn,

I know these sensations well--

Long ago, I marched on California's streets

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DERELICT

[ SONG-LYRICS ]

______________

I am no one but I am

Known by everybody

Only seen but never heard

Just part of the scenery

Hated, ridiculed & shunned

For the way I live

I survive through every day

On what others give

Nothing to my name by a heavy load

And plenty of freedom

Never knowing where the road takes me

Where ...

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CRIMSON STAIN

_____________

Brighter than day, the sunlight reflects

Making each of them gleam

Individually & set into necklaces

Clear, beautiful stones in a storefront window.

The shine alone was enough

To bring you inside the store for a closer look.

The counter clerk eagerly

Shows you his vast collection of shiny stones

On display.

Only one of them ca...

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OUT FRONT

_________

I am grateful for...

The arched roof above my head

The twin rafters with 

The twin lights, holding it in place

The four walls surrounding me

The two windows with

The two Venetian blinds, down & shut at all times

The red brick floor below my feet

The wooden shelves full of books & movies

The VHS by themselves & DVDs in clear totes

Th...

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SAMARITAN

__________

Anyone else

Would've left that Far Right

Reactionary sprawled on the concrete

To bleed out, suffer in his

Paroxysms of serious hurt, receive

Disaster of the steel-toed kind.

But not you.

The Good Samaritan

Reflex kicked in,

Wouldn't let you

Abandon someone in need of help.

Distinctions such as

"Friend" and "foe" did...

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DISEASE BREEDS DISEASE

_____________________

Strange new ailment

Giving pneumonia-like symptoms

Has a ripple effect

Spanning our globe.

Floating on the wind, harm to health,

Diaspora of microbes--

Point of outbreak:

Wuhan, China.

Within a month, fate's transmission

Country by country. Bad news travels fast.

Reported cases of Coronavirus

Breeds ...

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ABSENT FATHER

_____________

The father of

Seven children

Is absent from home.

Seven children are

Missing a playmate,

Missing a teacher,

Missing a provider.

He was lured

Away from his

Personal kingdom, beyond

The wildlife sanctuary.

A rifle,

A crossbow

Hastened his subtraction

From the dense 

Equation of life.

Now the royal

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ONLY THESE REMAIN

_________________

Only these remain

Anatomical remains.

Construction

Sites unearth

Disconnected 

Joints.

Only these remain

Skeletal remains.

Shellmounds disturbed--

Buried no more.

Bagged, tagged & stored

In a file cabinet drawer.

Only these remain

Ancestral remains.

Evidence that they

Existed here l...

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THIRST

______

Did you ever wonder how our planet's end may come?

By warming or by freezing? The warming arrives first.

As the Golden State continues to desiccate, people scramble for some

Water, any amount, to moisten their throats, remove their thirst.

____________________________________________________

W: 6.20.14

[ From the book Plans, Nomadic Press, 2022. ]

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PREFERENCE

_________

Statuesque.

Beautiful.

Exotic.

High-maintenence.

Men from all quarters would

Slay each other to the death to

Get close enough to

She of milk-like pallor, shadow

Painted lips, shadow

Painted nails, flowing hair and

Garments that compliment her supple shape,

Fine-boned corset that embraces her

Ribs tightly, all black

As evening w...

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MINNEAPOLIS WEEK

________________

Most Black men

In the U.S.A. have

An oppressor's leather boot

Applied to their necks.

George Floyd

Died untimely

With the knee of

Police repression on his.

George Floyd

Complained of

The knee's pressure restricting his oxygen.

He couldn't breathe--we couldn't breathe.

Derek Chauvin

Never respected the li...

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SERAPH WINGS

____________

She--English student-to-be

He--Art student

Accessorised well in cool black

Clothes as two roving assassins would

But they weren't assassins

They were just young, creative, self-expressive

Goths in love, bonded souls

With a beautiful future ahead of them

They both enjoyed the quietude before midnight

In a walk through Stubbylee Park--

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CONUNDRUM

As a twiggy little boy of 9,

I was so curious

About the bumblebees hovering

Over blood-red roses, flesh-pink roses,

Bushes filled with pale-yellow honeysuckles

That grew in my Grandmother's yard.

So curious, when I reached out to touch one,

That bumblebee stung me with its

Needlelike tail, leaving behind a mark,

Swollen red, painful,

On the caramel ...

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SCARLET TRIANGLE

Desperate bid

For re-election

Social media master plan:

Twist public perception

Of who the real

Public enemy is

The real dangerous mob

The real security risk

"And you shall know them

By this distinctive sign":

Scarlet triangle

Inverted design

Bright red as anger

Hardly concealed

Bright red as blood wrath

On these stree...

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WASHA-QUON-ASIN*

Many who had hiked through Canadian wilderness

[ A cenutry ago ] Took notice of a bird in flight

A rare one the Ojibwa called

Washa-quon-asin--He who flies by night

At once: a hunter, a guide, a trapper

A living made from the furs in his sight

A rare one the Ojibwa called

Washa-quon-asin--He who flies by night

Into his forest lair, he...

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 APOCALYPTIC SKY

Yesterday

Had proven science fact

Much stranger than fiction:

Vivid orange night

Replaced

Bright turquoise morning.

Sunlight was postponed.

Normalcy took a holiday.

My neighbour's

Barnyard animals,

Five chickens, two goats,

Didn't know what was going on

With their immediate surroundings.

Neither did that lone bird in flight.

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