Plum Seed

need to put myself down
let me walk on my own
let Jesus walk with me
walk me to the well of life

tired of being sick
point the finger, the stick
at who in society is
without a doubt sick

most of us are as sick spiritually
however much we cover illnesses up
with suits, affluence
with what money can buy
with drugs prescribed
or gotten otherwise

sick of, sick from, making the wrong choices

so much of what I put in my mouth
in my mind, in my senses
is poisoning me, is polluting the air
poisoning the river in me

how does one seek the kingdom first
seek it always

how does one just let all else be added
like one lets rain or snow fall


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:45 p.m. 28/11/07

On Glory Road
for Angela & Erica

how easy it is to fall off your horse
the one named life

bound for heaven night-before-last,
bound for glory for certain

I was on high, so far ahead
I thought I could indulge
in what is for me, a bit of delight

ignited a candle, in fact it
ignited all by itself, wax with wick,
ignited

allowed to look upon forbidden pictures
and to recall forbidden plums, cherries,
berries

I burst them all, all over my face,
all over the place
carried away, I aggravated a back injury

woke the day following, hardly able to walk
boy had I fallen off my horse hard


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:02 a.m. 28/11/07

Call Out
for G.P.

you are my bee, she asked
I could be, I said

O bee! she said
bare in bed


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:27 a.m. 26/11/07

To Bee
for M.S.

horny for you honey
always am, always was
wanting to buzz down your petals,
come up,
up to my neck in nectar
colorful pollen particles
all over a furious, furry bee


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:03 a.m. 26/11/07

Hand Over Mine
for L.M.B.

must learn again to write
to let, to lean on
who would guide your hand

in kindergarten again
learning to form
letters of the alphabet correctly
every time a poem comes along
to be written down

without idea, without skill
submit each time to guidance
not knowing how to cross a page
with the grasshopper of
the letters of the alphabet


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:59 a.m. 25/11/07

Flesh Meeting Fresh
for L.V.

Jackie Chan-looking chick
offered me a cheek to kiss
sweet and pretty cheek to kiss

check to cash, check to catch
whatever came along with it
I’d have accepted


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:36 a.m. 25/1/07

Spool of Tears
for Leslie Vanderpool

beauty in a cup
offered just a sip of it
sipped politely, sipped quickly
like holy communion cup
up to my lips

bit of wine for me
cup she offered, easily
I could have emptied
I couldn’t be greedy

unexpected,
cheek to kiss
when so many cheeks,
because of family members murdered
washed in tears
broken hearts in bosoms,
heaving, sobbing


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
1:49 a.m. 25/11/07

Every Sunday Dinner
for L.M.M.

in spite of our duet
so many minutes, days, years
I’ve had to play all alone

occasionally, when she shows up
she imagines we’re just going on

when in between her turning up
and turning back
upon the stage which all the world is
I have to appear, alone

face the audience with whatever music
I can muster, I can make a capella

my poems are these songs
melodies I make
some of them I whip out
many of them I weep out

out in the rain when the weather’s bad
unable to go inside
no inside to what I must at times
live through

out in the elements all alone


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:49 p.m. 24/11/07

olden days were golden days
olden days our golden days
olden days or golden days

Inspired Bye
for N.B.B.

snuff, tobacco,
wad of one or the other
in the jaw to chew
to get the juice out, to spit out

juicy fruit kisses
I’ve collected over the years
none as sweet as one shared tonight
with goodbye

that fraction of a minute
to sweeten so many bitter minutes
passed as well as to come

fruits year round to pick
with fingertips, with lips

all the fruits of which she’s made
in a list to get at
juices of them all in a kiss to sip

ii
am I pretty enough
for such a kiss
even now I wonder
am I deserving of it
just a single plum stolen
from her husband's tree
for me to swallow
she put in my mouth
push it in, shove it in
I have so few sweets
to live off, to live on
her husband has the tree
owns the tree or does she
she gave me one anyway
shoved into my mouth
fleshy, moist, pink lips
pressed against mine
in the dark, late in the night
she had to hurry home
intellect and a kiss, two sweets
for one deserving mouth
an undeserving man

iii
time brings as well as takes away
I do not like the bills it brings
without bringing money to pay them
I like how time dilutes a moment,
an occurrence as noxious as poison
time like more and more water
dilutes it as it widens out
until what was as if thrown in,
becomes less and less sharp, less harsh
until what was too much to handle
is insignificant—time acts similarly
upon joy, upon what’s too sweet
for words


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:39 a.m. 9/11/07

Life’s Rooms To Rent
for S. F.

let her have a boyfriend
or a cat or a dog
whatever pet she chooses
what do I care

my pen to push as far as I wish

used to be
the spoon in her cornflakes,
in the milk, in the strawberries
in her dish

we used to have breakfast
even before she washed her face

used to sit together
in the early morning
at the dining table

used to be the tooth paste
on her tooth brush

don’t even know now if
I’m her shoeshine boy


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:11 a.m. 22/11/07

I Had To Bring This Up
for E.M.J.

taste flour, taste eggs
in cake or smell eggs

smell raw meat or fish or chicken
what spices should disguise, transform
make who is served throw up or nearly

lemon meringue pie
egg-white to whip up
chef in the kitchen
knows what to do

whipping up joy
made from what, in other hands
might just be raw
uncooked, undone

when one know what to do
with words, so well blended
verbs, adverbs, commas, grammar
figurative devices

you perceive the forest
rather than the trees

what do I see when eyes eat her up
crumbs alone left upon the saucer
return until crumbs alone
are left upon the platter also

is there any more of her
is the pastry chef able
to manufacture more
unable to get enough
of what gives some sore eyes
for me though she is
a sight for sore eyes

suits me down to my little toe
soothes me as completely


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
5:28 p.m. 21/11/07

Alvin Ailey
for Rosa, Rachel,
Kevin & Jermaine

i.
I have held
him inside me

I have aged
with him inside me

besides myself
with him inside me

beside me where
I wish him
to be always

ii.
clean flight to another era,
area, to another life

invite me, I’ll travel,
I long for wings


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:32 p.m. 19/11/07

Sips of A Recipe
for Jackie Cox

owe you my eye,
my eye-teeth
it was a good night
taste of the good life
light you permit me see,
permit to shine
wine until we’ve red cheeks

Santa’s not confined
to December twenty-fifth,
to the night before Christmas

you come bearing gifts, in arms,
in sacks—ask, you consent

juices drip from the sky,
from on high—rain wets my eyes
I’m too happy for words


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:18 p.m. 19/11/07

Globe Grapes
for R.B.B.

sexy married woman
to get my mind about,
my arms around


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2006
6:07 p.m. 21/10/06

In Love In Laughter

only my ear drum between us
with her laughing up against it
this partition shaking
as if even this she wished down

with us in one room
with nothing on
with nothing between us

how near we are,
how bare we’ve been together

unable to enjoy it fully
because of blood ties

too close to be as close
as we could have been
as we wish we were

when she laughs
up against me near
up against my ear drum
the music of this,
us in its melody,
in this vibration


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:30 a.m. 118/11/07

Dresser Draws

what are you doing
so near me weeping
so close without clothes
snot and tears
wet in my ears

he was the first man
to kiss my pussy
she told her hair dresser

he was the first man
to undress her
the first man
to dress her


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:49 a.m. 18/11/07

Asses Noises

blistering the air,
the atmosphere,
with their nonstop
ba boom ba boom
as painful to me
as if these boils were between
my own layers
of thin skin


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
8:52 p.m. 16/11/07

Washed In Tears
of Mia

though without a penny nearly,
I am right here composing,
my daughter weeping,
she, her sister, their mother thinking
I was instead decomposing

they called and called,
they have this long stick,
the telephone, to poke me with
like an animal, too far off in its cage
to hug as well as too dangerous


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:55 p.m. 16/11/07

Bees & Other Thieves
for Dinal

how many
did I come away with
did I get away with

packets of honey
I hoard, I snatch,
I steal every time I visit

to myself I say, it’s justified,
the coffee’s priced too high

my conscience kicks in anyway
and pricks me, sticks me,
calls me a thief
to my teeth


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:02 p.m. 15/11/07

Siren’s Arms
for N.T.B.

crazy about him, arms about him
like a straight jacket
tied about his waist
I want us two tied together
as the tides come and go


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:41 a.m. 15/11/07

Can Live or Die

I’m only dying
that’s not difficult
nothing to worry about
just a new outfit to get into,
to put my arms
and legs through


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:21 p.m. 14/11/07


Umbrella

the rain indicates who reigns
who always has
who always will


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
4:10 p.m. 14/11/07

What A Mess

rather than
from before
people who would litter
must have come
from behind


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
4:55 p.m. 12/11/07

Cats & Dogs

hairy hotdog
for your hairy mouth pussy

purring for it, for this

hungry, thirsty pussycat
cute, cutting up


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:55 a.m. 15/06/07

Asylum Road

as if they thought
everyone along this street
was already a lunatic
unable to be driven crazy
all already are

to do madness, because mad,
they come through here

out of their minds
what they come to express
come through expressing

they imagine, already,
we’ve all lost our minds
whatever wretched they do
does not matter, would not matter

everybody out of their minds anyway
crazy day, crazy days, crazy hill

they might as well fence this area in
uniform us all, inmates, lunatic asylum,
too many to admit


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
8:38 a.m. 10/11/07

Horse Power

I’d wonder sometimes,
about my ability, day after day,
to get up and go

with bacteria, parasites, viruses,
in the billions when combined
like so many monkeys on my back

certainly, like Atlas,
I carry the weight of the world

all along knowing, one day,
this burden will be to much for me
too much to lift, too much to carry

and what’s upon my back
will sit on me and keep me down
“Yes!” they’d say,
in one accord, in triumph

they are death’s agents you see
it is then when they can
go to death to collect
their bounty


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:17 a.m. 11/11/07

Eyes Screen
for R.P.

people imagine that I’m gay
like Jean Genet

let me imagine for one minute
or for one day


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:10 a.m. 11/11/07

Pin for Their Balloon

their reality, they think
is thee reality, they think
is all the world

what of the fact that always
there are others
going the other way
in the opposite direction

certainly they must know
they must stick to one side
of the road
they can’t own it all
or have it all

their music rumbling
as if nothing else
in all the world mattered
nothing else happening
with any significance


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:33 p.m. 10/11/07

All I Need

I’m black and I am

© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:47 p.m. 7/11/07


Willing To Away
for Arthur Seymour

when the poem comes
to carry me away, I’m willing
then, when I have wings


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
1:23 a.m. 6/11/07

City Life or City Dying
for Marvin Dames

what of people like me who,
night and day,
are usually going the other way
should we not be allowed
our time, our space,
to get through, to get by

why are some allowed
to block the road, the ears
the atmospheres
with booming music
booming shaking earth
and house and sky
through the day
and through the night

not everybody ever
going their way
or wanting their way

should we not all be allowed
sufficient room to pass
sufficient quiet, sufficient peace

should there not be more respect
for all who use the streets
for who want to sleep

not everybody ever
going the same way

should anyone be allowed therefore
to pull us all down one stream,
over board or out to sea

cut me some slack
permit me my piece
permit me some peace

I need an ounce of quiet
as much as air, for life and health
of mind and soul and body

somebody do something
somebody hear me

has music too loud
made who is in authority
deaf as well as dumb

no one with a thing to say
to who makes life in this city
not at all pretty


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:21 p.m. p.m. 8/11/07

Axis & Asses

what they’re into
conceited enough to imagine
is what’s happening
is what’s going on

they turn the volume
of what they’re doing up
for everyone to hear
so no one will be deprived
or left out

what they are playing they imagine
is the center piece of existence
when already there’s the trinity
when the earth already has its axis

asses, upstarts, wishing to impose
some agenda, just rigged up upon us

when the center piece of life
is distilled silence,
is quiet prayer


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
9:06 p.m. 10/11/07

Forced-to-fit Music
for Carolyn Cooper

who has released these criminals
who has set them upon us to upset us
to upset society’s apple cart
in disbelief, my mouth drops open
whenever a vehicle goes by
music like thunder from underground
does war make a worse sound
is war a worse pound, a worse vibration
my house, without end, shaking
with me inside, angry as well as scared
wondering what’s to come next
how akin to natural disaster
are these persons gone mad
wanting us all to go crazy with them
wanting us all caught up
in their mad-crazy rhythms
even who might wish
to detach from this world
withdraw from it
into a life of contemplation
even who might prefer
Gregorian chant


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:52 p.m. 10/11/07

A Rock A Hard Place

caught between honeys
for 12 ozs. of honey
imported from the U.S.A.
for which I must pay
between 5 and 6 dollars,
I can purchase for a-dollar-ten
in the airport in Havana
where you’d find
their steepest prices

I gave as gifts,
all six I returned with

caught between honeys,
between the prices of them,
what’s left for me to do
but to fill my hands in Starbucks
with honey to leave with

as expensive as their coffee is
the price of honey, I snatch and carry
seems factored in already

I must sneak to get away with
little plastic packets of honey
while they can, without a gun,
in broad daylight, take my money


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:56 a.m. 10/11/07

Why My One Voice
for Hubery Ingraham & Paul Faquerson

rattle my teeth, my house,
my bones when vehicles
with their music
go booming by

what is suppose to be my home
shaking like a bird, its nest, its eggs
when vehicles thunder by

don’t care if they crack shell or glass
if we crack up, unable to take anymore

have to complain and complain
about what is already against the law

busy in the House of Assembly
passing more laws
when existing laws
are completely ignored

everybody marking time
no body on the job
no body for law and order
no one it seems
wants an orderly society


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:14 a.m. 23/10/07

Parking In My Yard
for Nathalie & Ray

why strive, why struggle
to remain long in this world
in such a nasty place
with such nasty people

why not just get on the train
whenever it comes,
however early and be gone

why not keep a bag packed
be ready, willing, able
to relinquish ties, connections, contact
when the time comes, however soon

this is no place to take vacation
unless you’re a tourist
what is better in or about this Bahamas

unless unfortunate me happens to be
living on the city dump, the shitty dump
the garbage heap

is all of this Paradise
or you have to cross the bridge, the track

heart attack or an actual attack
in your own house, in your own yard

what you thought you owned, you don’t
unless you’re prepared to die to defend it

hoodlums wanting to intimidate you
out of your own skin
but haven’t they eyeballs, balls,
a dozen other vulnerable places
for life and light to leak out of, out through

within every thick skull, brains of jelly, of Jell-O
membrane between life and death
between here and now, is but a hair’s breadth

if a limb can break in a storm
what of who would kick against the pricks,
strike against or butt up against bricks

make a space, a place for me here
to be safe, to be happy in oh, God
until the work I’m called to do is done
let me not live, intimidated by
or afraid of any man


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:48 p.m. 06/10/07

Alphabet Soup
for T.P.

“I wish I’d eaten
“your pussy just once!”
I said
“Well it’s too late now!”
said Sadie, married lady
“You just did!”
I wish she'd said
like Julia Roberts


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:07 a.m. 9/11/07


Scaffolding
for W.S. Merwyn

punctuation marks
like tacks
to keep a poem up
which would otherwise
fall off the page

off the wall


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:30 a.m. 9/11/07

Fulfill Mints
of L.M.M.

she can deprive me only of what she has to give
unable to deprive me of
what her maker has deprived her of

small thing, small change,
what she withholds from me, what has been

what I am really longing for
is what has been withheld from her
for what she herself should be longing for
had she higher aspirations, more ambition,
were she less complacent

instead of acquiring for herself
abilities she admires in me,
she wants to remain as is
with intellectual limitations
attach to me like a goat to a tree

only a tree is not a goat, a goat is not a tree

you have to be yourself,
whatever it is you want to be

she cannot withhold from me
what she herself has not got
has not been given, has not acquired

she, stingy, deprives me of
the little she does have
of what she does have in her little cup

with her limited capacity
she attempts to limit me
she expects she could starve me
but with all she has to give, had to give
I was starving already

she is incapable of saving me from starvation

with more conceit than intellect,
she imagines withdrawing, withholding
is able to have devastating impact

with her or without her
I had to, I’d have to look elsewhere
to fill my cup, to feel fulfilled
for fulfill mints


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
1:56 p.m. 8/11/07

Soda Crate Seat
for N.B.

want to get to the bottom of you
though I know you’ve said I do
I can if you’d let me

want to remove the lid,
reach down into the dark,
rake up
whatever chick feed’s left
in the barrel
customer with hungry chicken to satisfy

or should I, from chick feed
make grits, eat it,
let the chickens
dig worms in the mud
in the morning


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:16 a.m. 8/11/07

Akee & Codfish
for N.B.

rank body odor
after a long day at the clinic
I like even better
than her perfume
I like when she gives it to me raw
I like best what’s truest

what she produces,
woman from Jamaica,
more than what’s manufactured
in Paris


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:43 p.m. 7/11/07


Where Too Find Pearls
for N.B.

she should blow her poems
out of her nose, like snot

she should fart them or shit them
or spit them,
she should never speak them

words out of the mouth
out of a common place
out of a
too familiar place


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:31 p.m. 7/11/07

a person who would litter is more animal than human

Without Warm Hips
for L.M.M. & D.A.

I am the seat she’s claimed
but she seldom sits in it

to prevent anyone else sitting in it
she’d leave
her empty glasses case upon it

show after show therefore
I'm all alone


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
4:58 p.m. 6/11/07

Ripe Tomatoes
for Erica & Angela

help us oh God to reach
not just for low pleasures
for what’s on the lowest shelf

not just for what is near at hand
not only for what we can reach
with our hands
no further than arm’s length

help us more and more oh, God
to reach for what can only be reached
with mind -- help us to be passionate
about such fruit as these

for those fruit too high to reach
to pick or to knock down with stick
help us with our minds, to reach the sky

enable us to cause rain to tumble down
or with prayers, to cause hoarfrost to rain down,
food from heaven when we’re hungry
instead of eating garbage off the ground

instead of littering, dropping debris
as well as who, too soon,
become society’s unwanted citizens


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
9:57 p.m. 2/11/07

Heart walls
To Pass Through
de L.M.M.

though she has a key
to my front door
she has a way of behaving always
as if she does not fit

always about her, a certain futility
suggesting she cannot, she will not

this coupled with
my having grave doubts

are the keys to our hearts given
or by some mystery, acquired

does who enter do so
because we cannot keep them out
come from other worlds, a past life
with the password


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
1:45 p.m. 4/11/07

Decapitate A Chicken
for Jerry & Dickson

package me better, oh, God
don’t want to be the boxes
on shelves in supermarkets
bursting open or containers
with caps improperly fitting
contents oozing, spilling, spewing


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:18 p.m. 4/11/07

Tar Feathers
for Steve McCurry

bird in oil, bathe in oil
in Kuwait, 1991
what war made leak
what war made deep

bird in oil, bathe in oil
will it, did it fly again

bird in oil unable to fly
unable to flap oily wings

bombers fly freely
fly swiftly

days of yore
days of war


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:34 a.m. 2/11/07

Must Get Lost to Be Found
for Erica & John & Heino & Cedric

want to land
in the middle of an art movement
a community of artists somewhere
however far away from here
from these 700 islands
where tourism and artists don’t mix,
don’t meet

I want to fall in
among this community of persons
I dream of, I imagine being part of
like a cat from the sky

would they be startled
when this cat arrived
grab their possessions
in desperation to flee
would I have to say,
hay, it’s only me, to calm them

I want to fall in, knowing I’ll fit
if not from the outset, eventually
fall in clumsily among them
like my friend Orin’s cat

Big Wig would want
to lie in your lap
even if the newspaper
were outspread already
and you were reading

would fall through the evening news
or attempt to
news of its own to make
wanting to be included
not prepared to be excluded
from the story unfolding

as the world went round
as the day unfolded
or as evening descended


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:08 a.m. 2/11/07

Rihanna

Girl, you are daring,
wearing what you’re wearing


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
5:58 a.m. 1/11/07

Opera Tickets
for Cedric & Yuki

rather than burrowing
through thick skin
or through my thick skull
parasites hitchhike rides
deep into my body, into my blood
upon fruit or vegetable or meat
upon foods I like to eat


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
4:46 a.m. 1/11/07