Friday, December 5, 2014

poem of the day 12.05.14


white palms

i thought that
i was so down back then
but i didn’t know shit about shit
stacks of r&b tapes
new edition
al b. sure
guy, levert, and karyn white
my old man’s
temps albums
sailing on with lionel richie
black films
hollywood shuffle
i’m gonna get you sucka
eddie murphy impersonations
in front of my mirror
cosby before the fall
a new jack city of the mind
listening to slick rick tapes
with calvin deflino
outside the girl’s high school
public enemy
ice cube
fucking the police
rocking the suburbs
it was a cross-colors world
and i wanted  to be a part of it
i had no clue what the white kids
were doing
because i didn’t give a shit to be white
the autobiography of malcolm x
soul on ice
iceberg slim and donald goines
pictures of lisa bonet
hanging on my wall
BET
donnie simpson after school
bbd (i thought it was me)
2pac on the rise
sitting on the bus next to calvin
our school bags
scrawled with rappers names
name dropping jodi watley
i told him
a joke
hey, calvin
why are the palms of black people white?
calvin shifty eyed
on the school bus
didn’t have an answer
so i said,
from always being pressed up against
the hood of cops cars
no laughter between the two of us
fifteen years old
had no clue where i first heard it
babyface and bobby brown
heavy d and the boyz
full force on full blast
janet
michael
tony! toni! tone! had done it again
my friend rodney hastings
only a seat behind me
who told me
two days later that he heard
everything that i said
i couldn’t look
him in the eye
kept staring at his palms
red
white
pink
brown
his flesh
while he asked me why
said
i should’ve known better
because i thought that i was down?
and when he walked away
man
i knew that i truly
lost a friend

                                    

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