Guiding Hands Freeing Hands
for Margot Bethel
& her summer workshop of children

i.
unable to read red, able to read red

red to read if I could, story red tells
is tragic sometimes

add green to red and it is ho ho ho time

ii.
power of speech, power to speak

I seek a painting to commune with
seek painting able to communicate

painting capable of glossolalia
day of Pentecost, tongues of fire

who in the world is able
to comprehend or apprehend
gibberish

iii.
get to stand as near to them
as if to dance with them

get to wear them
as near them as underwear

these colors, patterns
pretty jockey shorts
boxer shorts

boxer shorts
in a boxing match
in a boxing ring

what if boxer ended up
upon his back,
upon the canvas, unconscious

trainer unlacing his boxing gloves
punched out, punch drunk

on his back, unable to throw
another blow
or blow another bubble

solution in container
you swish about

air through plastic ring
bubble after bubble
float in space, in time

iv.
level of noise
what are they full of
in need of release

v.
this the most distilled
this one I'll own, I'll take home

this piece of summer
this note of children frolicking
of childish frolic

my world, their world
membrane between them
between us

safe to be separate
to be separated

we all need our room
our rooms

rumble of thunder
to frighten us all
on a rainy day

vi.
squiggly, wiggly
squiggly pig's tail

what else is squiggly
won't mention here

squiggle it, wiggle it
new piglets into being

pigs in a pig pen
rooting in muck
rooted in mud

I used to love cabbages so much
when they were thrown to us

at dinner time, at supper time

shape of cabbages
to bite into

cabbage to devour
until hunger abated

until satiated

vii.
each child,
a stroke to make
has a stroke to make
art to make

must take care
who will have
a stroke today

old age
and the threat of stroke

a stroke to brain
a brain stroke
and infirmity follows

stroke to make
while there is time
art to make
while there is time

too soon comes
the end of time

that final stroke
clock strikes 9

that stitch in time
which saves nine

otherwise
what we do or did
becomes undone
unravels


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
Written in the Hub,
last day of Margot’s
Children's Junkanoo workshop
between 11:10 a.m. and 12:16 p.m.
on Thursday, August 12, 2010