1. in the dream
the crosswalk is packed with people
stepping into it
cars slowing ahead and to the right
but to the left
a maroon something (sedan? sports car?)
picking up high speed as (he?)
barrels
redrovers
ploughs
through a line of people
one of them airborn
in maroon man’s wake
i expected decapitation
or hips and legs going this way
while torso goes that
in fact
in his airbornness
i thought i saw him
split in two
but when he lands
spine against curb
he leans himself up on elbows
cranes his neck around like ‘wha?’
not a bit of blood
on his face
i run to him
streetside
honeyvowels slipping out my mouth
soothing
a coo
encouraging him
to lie back down
and breathe
kneeling
i take his huge hand in mine
like a leaf pressed to dry
between two pages of a dictionary
i’m right here
i tell him
i’m right here with you
2. in waking life:
pedestrian
in crosswalk
flinches
as i roll up
on bike
3. in front of the projection screen
you remind us
that after james byrd junior
was dragged for several miles
still conscious
when his body
slipped off to one side
and into a culvert
where he was decapitated
4. again
i am here
i am right here with you
5. executing a job talk, douglas kearney style:
step out from behind the podium
swear
dare to refer to sex (as in fucking, not as in gender) and race
explain some of your poems exposing the latticework of theory behind them
get on the floor
to demonstrate the difference of what it looks like
to be pulled by a chain from the back bumper of a car
on your stomach
and on your back
and stand up again
as if you didn’t just dare to inhabit your body
perform poems that require yelling and spitting and then acknowledge these poems as yelling and spitting poems without ever apologizing for yelling and spitting
then
read hurricane katrina haikus that don’t require your yelling and spitting because the text itself already does so
demonstrate ‘a run’ (like in gospel music) not just by talking about it, but by singing it
allow your voice to take us to that lifted spiritual church place
and then
go back to getting to your point about ‘a run’ and how it operates on the page as if you didn’t just resurrect some part of us from the academic dead
name it struggle
quote other writers
as well as hip hop musicians
use your body
one shoulder up
the other one
eventually following
to demonstrate the blue note
and then, just in case we didn’t get it,
go in there again and do something holy with your voice to further explain the blueness of a note
tell us a word
that sounds like hukufi
which comes from black culture
and is used to encapsulate the idea that
the amount of sweat you put into something is directly related to the amount of spirit existant in it
at some point
say
this is a stunt
call this talk an exchange
demonstrate a breakdancing freeze
down
on the floor
again
when the ipod music doesn’t work
don’t even blink
just sing the parts of the songs
you were trying to refer to
hook us back in with another spitting yelling poem at the hour mark
when you feel our attention
go slack
acknowledge the person walking out early with a
thank you so much for coming
gesture this gratitude with your hands and open face
when a suited white guy (who is only a husband of faculty at the school you are interviewing at and therefore not actively involved in the process) interrupts you to ask a question about preoccupation between poetry and kitsch, respond with a ohhhhh yeeeeeeah spark of interest at digging into the meat of theis query and respond with references to hiphop/musicoligists (your world against his) and metonymics and also toss back without bite is kitsch an aberration or a reflection?
6. i don’t even know
how it came up
but i tell the class how
upon entering these rooms
i feel like i have to check my body at the door
which launches us
into discussion
of the place of body
relationality
in our writing
