8 Days A Week
for T.L.C.

i.
crab cakes, crab pies make
with your crabby meat

enough of it to eat
when Christmas comes
or from now until Christmas
or until Christ comes

instead of turkey,
instead of ham

ii.
forced to share
though I live alone

must share my pizza
my two last slices
with a million tiny ants

too selfish to share
they’ll eat me eventually

they’ll not be denied
their tiny belly full

iii.
what do I mean to her
am I mean to her

what does she mean to me
too mean to me too

are we mean or kind
do we love each other
as we should

are we bad, are we good

to love creativity, poetry
as she does, as I do

to the edge of the flames
to the brink of aspirations

where we go
where I’d push her, pull her

where we’d go
to look for poetry

while others are combing
the beach for shells

iv.
need to vacation
somewhere
away from here

somewhere
like Key West

like coming home
to clear my head

declare I’m crazy
or in a crazy world

a break from it,
must break from it

on the beach somewhere
Mint Julep to sip
through straws

until the noise in the glass
is all that remains

v.
forced up, fucked up
some poetry we put down

cows to put down
fish to pull up

hogs to slaughter

food for Good Friday
for Easter dinner

sinner man in this world
in this week

sullying these
seek holiness still

a hand to hold
whose will it be

vi.
edge of a knife, of this life
hammer in hand

unable to find nails
to build with
to construct a cross

hammer and nails
for the hands
and feet of Christ

beneath these hands
beneath these feet

the feat of building a church
Church which followed

these cross pieces
its first two planks

vii.
we are nation now
do we need still

the gestures, the posture
of slaves, of slavery

its push and pull,
its high tides, low tides

look what tides washed up
what tides washed in

I need to wash my face
it’s a new day is it not

viii.
don’t be selfish
lem me smell yur shell fish

up on a shelf: take it down

lem me reach it, touch it
take it away in a dish

for supper, what’s left

with goat pepper and thyme
with sweet pepper and lime


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
Written between 2 p.m.
And 6:22 p.m., Wednesday,
April 8, 2009.