for Anthenique Russell
i.
you get excited and you don’t know why
or become sad and not know why
when emotions are affected, are altered
by fragrances, colors, shades of colors
by light, dark or bright
by temperatures, warn or hot or cold
by fire and ice
you get excited or sad
by the slightest shift or that or this
we thirst or hunger
or desire to pee or shit
ii.
he does not seem drugged out
he seems drug free
instead of marijuana cigarettes
he smokes dicks,
gets high on these
dicks in his mouth, in his fists,
sufficient to please
iii.
used to be waiting places
for God to send me a lift
used to assume I was stranded
when already he’d supplied,
outfitted me with transportation
legs, feet,
carriage all the same, nonetheless
all I have to cross is a rock
7 miles wide, 21 miles long
not as if I had the whole continent
of Africa to traverse, to cross
to get home or to town
iv.
I keep wanting to pee
I’ve got something or something’s got me
I want something or something wants me
no end to wanting to pee pee pee
v.
amazing the distances feet can cover
one step at a time, one foot after another
arriving where I’m going, thinking
I got here far too quickly
on foot, I am never stuck in traffic
wasting time and wasting gas
vi.
I am interested in your identity
I am interested in locating you
like someone needing to/wanting to
pull off an assassination
necessary to locate you
before I pull the trigger
though it’s just a poem
I have to/want to write of you
though, instead of rifle with telescope
it is a pen in my fist
my eyes alone, unaided, to see you with
to see you through
nevertheless it’s necessary
to locate you to write a poem
locate you before I shoot off my mouth,
my verse, my worst shoot
vii.
what am I looking up or looking at
stars to look up at, words to look up
friends to look up
whom I’ve not seen in a long time
in prison or insane
viii.
stuff for the catwalk,
for the cat to pull off, to carry off
a cat brings a rat into the house
in its mouth
Versache fashion
for who will bite, for who will buy
ix.
white people thinking
you want to venture into their whirl
but you’re in the whirl already
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
Written between 7:30 p.m.
06.12.08 and 1:05 a.m. 07.12.08
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