Friday, April 23, 2010

last night

sorry i haven't been posting, guys...i totally FAIL. anyway...

last night

officer
i swear
im sober

im sorry.
i promise
i didn't mean
to hit that ed hardy wearing fool
in the face with my blackberry
a la naomi campbell.

its just that
he called us prostitutes.

doesnt a girl have the right
to wear a slutty outfit
out in hoboken
without having ugly guys
with acne hit on them?

im sorry.
they tried to get us
to talk about doing dip.
didnt realize
that telling him to leave
would cause 45 minutes
of slut jokes
on the path train
at 3 am.

officer
i swear to drunk
im not god.
and im sorry too.
Day 16, Poem 16: Braggadocious Rantings? or WTF?

Keep runnin' on
'cause they can't win-
if they can't catch us
And they can't beat us -
'cause they can't match us
Somebody call Miramax
- they need to adapt this
Won't retract this
And if you sue me
for the record
don't redact this
Let 'em know the truth
Baby, I'm blunt, not tactless
And I might start slow
but I finish hard
-just out of practice
You lack this-
kind of energy
word art synergy
But baby I'm a renaissance woman
I ain't done yet
-just beginning
I got new stores
of stories
and imagery
restoring me
all guts and glory
all or nothing-spurring me
can't discourage me
My cohorts
All upstarts
Alcs Poetica
Whatcha want?
Pick a font
Comic Sans, Engravers Go-thic
or Helvetica
It don't matter
Your world-we shatter
All haters and fake asses
scatter
'cause our words bleed
fuck our demons
they can't read
insanity shifts
and flows and riffs
like a symphony
or the lyrical
go for the gut
no sympathy
Baby,
it's all cyclical
Day 15, Poem 15: For Constance McMillen Grand Marshall at NYC PRIDE, 2010

Once upon a time,
Summer of '69
Dykes and Queens
seized the streets
Stonewall Inn
Gay revolt
One night
we chose to fight
not crawl away
See, Constance
this is why we celebrate

They had government files on us, Constance
called us UN-American
They called us Communists
anarchists
evil
You couldn't walk the streets
of Greenwich Village, NYC
hand in hand with your lover
No touching allowed
They charged us with indecency
No kissing
No cross-dressing
If stopped by police, by law -
women had to have 3 articles
of feminine clothing
on their person
or risk arrest
Businesses weren't allowed
to serve us
or let us dance
If they did and got caught
they were shut down
They raided the bars
every week
They put our names in the local papers
publicly outed us
called us unfit parents
obliterated us
and it was all legal, Constance
On the regular the police harassed us
They protected those who beat us
or helped
They refused to protect us
Constance, they called us crazy
and it was a clinical diagnosis
until 1973.
They institutionalized us
experimented on us
with electric shocks
and mind-altering drugs
and lobotomies
We were fired from our jobs
in the military
the government
the post office

Constance, they took God from some of us

But who would want
to pray to a God they
said must hate us?
Our families disowned us
They called us indecent
perverts
abnormal

Constance, you knew better
even in Mississippi
And we love you
and your girlfriend
and your predisposition to
men's clothing
and vagina
Come on, sister
But as you parade down 5th Avenue
and turn down 8th Street
towards the river
remember those Queens
in a bar on Christopher Street
locked up for being queer
and because of them we're here
Rock on, baby girl.
Word.

A light between my houses

Run along the river ink,
take the GWB,
take the D--
smell all the flowers,
the garbage men swinging off
their trucks in the night.
Pass tugboats on the water.
Move your feet faster.

Shake the cherry blossoms
from their stems,
it's springtime, do it to me, sing.
Suck the salt from all the benches,
pet the dogs, if there are any.

Sing to me of the slate,
of the grey river slipping,
of the seagulls diving
towards the pavement or water;
fleeting as they are,
the ground is still thawing.

Sing to me, sing,
out in the open,
talk about thirst, the aether,
the earth, sing to me, softly,
I'll drink the whole river.

Sing to me, keep going,
the flowers keep growing,
sing to me of the sea,
of the food in the body.

Sing to me, salty,
move down Manhattan,
sing to me, sleeping,
the river's still flowing,
sing to me, sing to me,
the animals all able,
sing to me, sing,
I'll swig the salt
from your navel.