basement smell(t) like a raccoon
chewin on a banana laffy taffy
inside de furnace
cussin mary’s baby
& erything else

1. He reminded me of the character Willis Jackson from the TV show Diff’rent Strokes. This prompted me to reimagine a dark narrative of a Willis who would be bullied for having all of blk Harlem caked on him inside his new Manhattan boarding school. In front of a studio audience who wouldn’t laugh.

There’s an article on how to eat an apple.
But I am eating a pear and thinking
pear in Korean is a homonym for ship or boat

I want to paint you with rainwater:
your window, smoke over slick avenues.
The first time I thought you beautiful,
your lashes blonde lamplight.

The day folds up like money
if you’re lucky. Mostly
sun a cold coin
drumming into the blue
of a guitar case. Close
up & head home.

RUN AWAY from this sub-
scriber for the second time
are TWO NEGROES, viz. SMART,
an outlandish dark fellow

We cannot push ourselves away
from this quiet, even in our sprees
of inattention, the departing passengers
stubbing out their smokes, arrivees in tears,
lots of cellophane, the rumpus over parking.

You shouldn’t have a heart attack
in your 20s. 47 is the perfect time
for a heart attack. Feeding stray shadows
only attracts more shadows. Starve a fever,
shatter a glass house. People often mistake
thirst for hunger so first take a big slurp.

The world weeps. There are no tears
To be found. It is deemed a miracle.
The president appears on screens
In villages and towns, in cities in jungles
And jungles still affectionately called cities.
He appears on screens and reads a story.

It does not do you like it
Imperfect copy’s forgery
Posts its vermillion decree