Shadow by Lepadah

Standing with the Devil at the door
shadow metaphors
left open the gates
you selected your tools

beheaded your efforts
left you bleeding before warrior feet
unable to cry out defeat
cherubic tantrums

our symposium was not about you
drop verse, unrehearsed
splash words on paper
be it the image maker

flowing free
a sea mouth full of vocabulary
syntax, grammatical relapse
castigator considered to be terminator

pow! Molotov cocktail
lyrical sensation
you can’t be me and . . .
I never wanted/needed to be you

stuck dreaming
stifled by tobacco chewing country boys
isolated from big city blues
this sista sling slang with jazz gurus

wanna be Brooklyn gurly
what ya know about them
absolutely nothang
foundation planted in earth of urban blight
outta sight . . .

all I know . . . I'm a hold up artist
staying out of the blue funk
sleeping with men you dare to dream about
walk with Gods you dare to pray to
inside Soho lofts Crosby street
Duncan, Moses and Louis Reyes Rivera we all meet
to in person sounds of Cuba

you don't know . . .
someone handle this . . .
Zora’s memory at the Schomburg in essence of air
can't touch . . . hold me

etched in Harlem prophets skeleton
beat fables within the anima
you can’t represent; feeling all bent
already spent too many verses on me

so what you gonna do?
sail down literary waters correct my English
derive synonyms, adjectives out the thesaurus

come on step to the ghetto
falling all over you
write as one please
forcing to poetic knees

take heed this one flowed
long with Thoreau
Hemingway for days
sepulcher in Fabio, Wright, Levertov, Cervantes . . .
back at the arid hole
constantly thirsty

Jah giveth water
please drink it
you can continue to dream Jewel
stare at the stars; cry at the moon

while holding ballers in pool pockets
seven settling days ferment sockets
dare to stare at what we can bare
lyrics, rhyme and Congo lullabies
beauty of burnt sienna

remember we are the rhythmic riders
whose haloes stolen long ago
by the Devil . . .

death walk poets

© revised 2011 Lepadah