Someone to Do It With
for Nicolette, Margot, Rachael,
Erin, Jonathan, Bryan and Leah

i.
under the weather this week

the week will come when I’ll be
when we’ll be,
under the earth, unable to get out
unable to get up

under the weather,
I can, in time, be up and about again
on my feet again

we can, afterwards
get together again

ii.
if cut eye cudda cut
I’d be in as many pieces
as beets, tomatoes, carrots

I’d be in bits and pieces
for soup or supper

cut in pieces, cut to pieces
if cut eye cudda cut

iii.
she is incongruous with here

is contempt too strong a term
for what I sense she thinks, she feels
about this place, situation
her affair with her lover has landed her in

wants to be/has to be here as well as elsewhere

situation does not produce, provide
fulfillment

must seek it in books to read
in yearning to get abroad
to further her education

these local standards not her standards
cannot afford to be trapped over-the-hill
or too near to it

aggressive about getting away
with books to read
or laboring away
on her lap top

iv.
10 ties into/in two positions

are there ties actually inside
what has been Junkanoo pasted

pretty paper, pretty colors
fringed exactly as costumes on Bay
on Boxing Day morning

these ties hang from The Hub ceiling
like nooses, like pieces of clothing
hang from lines

each attached to a question
about Junkanoo, about culture
about being Bahamian

I wonder if such a country
such a citizen exists
on the face of Earth

among its seas, oceans, continents

ties to hang in if yur tired a livin

v.
impossible it seems,
in this world, to abide or to survive

without someone
on the other side of the divide

on the net’s other side
to play with, to fight with

as if it were impossible
to get along, to get anywhere

without someone without end
to defeat, to sword fight with

to duel with, to do it with


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
Written between 5:45 p.m.
and 8:43 p.m. Sunday,
December 5, 2009