Dave says...

Limbo

When will it be my time?
Time enough to be free
Not labouring
Constantly
Waiting
Everywhere I go.
Waiting in lines
Lines of patience
and more patience
and more patience
and more
waiting
and waiting
mmmmm
hmmmmmm
til there's nothing left
Nothing to gain
Nothing to save
no blending
everything seperated
no blending
mixing
or even wanting
and desiring.
Just waiting.

Oooooooohhhhhhh!

Snap

Mr Negro Black

Hello Mr Negro Black
Been waitin for you to show you
and skin
Grinning like you owe somebody
Not knowing
All those debts been
paid
Mr Negro Black
velvet
as the night
ashamed of essentiality
rootedness
that you
blend
Shoeshine up some of those words for me

Women's grace - the dose is never weak

Often women do not know their own power
We sit around waiting
for someone to give it to us
and then judge
there we lie
in what power we can claim
through judgment
Most of us learn our power
from a man
from a sexual experience
From a past that touches us deeply
and then we never forget
how to be ourselves

There is a difference between that innocent girl
that plays and flirts
and that grown woman that hunts and is coy
She is the one that has learned herself
The one tnat can manipulate her being
She can shape
and reshape
and reshape
again
and over
knowing that she is nothing but herself
in all her forms

She doesn't bow to anothers person
or cheer
She only submits hers
and if there is a concession
may offer an elixir
through a laugh
or sly remark
so that the stomach is that much easier
but the dose
is never weak

There she is
unapologetic
only waiting
on herself

It is hertime
and there will never be another time after
She blots out what fun you might have had
Because there is no fun
in one
who does not dance
there is no humilation in one who
does not bow
but only submits
herself

Which one?

Money
Control
Power
Sex

Which one?
Money...
Power
Control
Sex
Sex
Power
Money
Control

I think po..co..se...mo
Pomocose
Pocosemo
Power

Wait for the day

It is so quiet
so peaceful
I can wait for the day
The day doesn't have to wait on me

today that is...

Below Sea Level

"New Orleans is a beautiful part of our history. It is also below sea level, unfixable and permanently unsafe." - Will Lange, Tyler, Texas (Time Magazine, 8/27/2007)

Beautiful
Poverty,
children
food
crowd
overcrowded
sheets on windows
dilapidated buildings
no running water
valet service
"Let me hold open that door for you ma'am"
Shuffle, shuffle
Popeyes
quaint streets
slick blades
lights
alchohol
tricks
"In that water"
street performance
under that water
can't get out

History
Something we forgot about
Something we don't want to remember
elephants
crowded
in
rooms
stay ignored
too big
suffocating
we won't look at them
and their
show
Beautiful history

Black people making love
don't watch it

Below sea level
I already said drowning
meant it
made a way
within the still waters
God parted
and made a place for me
ancestors held back the walls
made a place for me
Jordan, the Sea of Reeds
Made a place for me
something fantastic
made a place for me

Unfixable
Shouldn't have been fixed like that anyway
but since it was...
I'll live there
make the fixed out of the unfixable
everyday
that's what I do
make my name from
can I borrow a dollar?
Can I give you these three quarters for a dollar?
Fix me
Fix me please
Fix me
Fix me
Fix me

Permanently unsafe
I didn't know that
I'm unsafe
Permanently
I didn't know that
How did you?
I thought I fixed the unfixable
I thought
that was my namesake
that's what I do
Didn't I do that
that ain't enough
Well now
what do I do
I am not to be feared
but if you are going to

go head

I'll take that too

Deign to Signify

I don't pretend that I know what I am doing anymore
It is clear that what I do is far from anything
that imitates
intention and precision
I don't deign
I don't even signify
Not anymore
Definitions of me
no longer fit
And not necessarily
because
I've outgrown them
necessarily
because I've taken on a new shape
as yet to be spoken
There I am
tired of the old
looking at the new
in my hands
with an inability
to deign
what to do with it
and I don't signify
not anymore
Waving my hands
hands on my hips
cutting my eyes
those actions don't fit me
speaking with the properest of tongues
annunciating
gracefully laying my hands in my lap
bore me
they are not me
Sitting
vacantly
waiting
seems to be
what I do best
I don't deign
Don't even signify
I ain't got time.

Long day

Long day.
Yesterday
Long day
Long day
tired but very happy
exhausted
need some coffee
but not a coffee drinker
at peace and settled
long days
16days

Newness

And here it is
a deadline pushed up.
I get to work on things much faster then I had ever imagined
Good for me
Good for me
Now I just need to get organized
17days

I should be better

Getting back to people
is not what I do
very well
I am generally too busy to
get back.
You should just read my mind
I am at peace
Happy where I am
still waters are
definitely running deep
and are very still
at the bottom
That is where I am.
This is where I am
still and waiting.
17days

A whole new week

A whole new week of Mondays
Tuesdays
Wednesdays
construction
road blockages
closures
..closed..
..reopened..
..cycle..
over and over and over and over and
over
and
over
A whole new week
of ..and over..
18days

And still...

Sunday has come and things are
still moving
You would think
at least oneday
tomyself
but no
nonononononononononono
I wish
gotta get ready for what's next
19days

Working Working Working

Day and night,
I shuffle papers
Not doing anything for me
creatively
I feel lost in a vortex
Days are filled
Weekends are filled
Everything is filled
with everything but me
I am lost amidst
computers and pens and faxes
and labels
and e-mail
and
life
I am lost amidst
phone calls
and
life.
But I am still
here.
20days

I can't wait

For a little bit of heaven
You must wait
And I will
For something that is life changing
You must wait
and I will
Days, months, years
Flowers grow and wilt
It doesn't matter
I can wait
But I will be thinking
Still
Thinking
and waiting
here
for lifes changes
21 days

The Day After

Coming into work
after all that fun
ain't easy
especially that early
not human
wasted
I'm gonna need some
sleep.
22days

Where the Wild Things Are

Diesel

Rocket

I am already tired
and then things just happen
9:30am
the fun begins
and
acetylene cannons rocket
out of proportion
stopping traffic
using up all the extra
energy
I might have.
Everything is at a standstill.
...
Slowly moving back
and waiting.
For safety.
Peace be still.
23days

Diesel

New friends
always offer new experiences.
Brothers, sisters and friends
come together
and
drink
a lot
and have fun conversating.
It's nice when work and play
intermingle
so well
I haven't had fun like this
in quite awhile.
24days

PapierMache

Thin strips
watery,
pasted over
to hide the color.
Blue.
Time taken out of the day.
Waking up early
to apply
thin strips.
Thin strips
watery
applied to canisters of hot air
to give shape.
Wait
wait
wait
to dry.
I try not to break my thin promises
I try not to hide my color
25days

Getting out

I don't know what I am supposed to be doing
but I don't feel like being
in
I tried to watch "Mr. Show"
Didn't work
Slept through most of it
Sounds, color and fuzz exploding in my mind
Lazy afternoon
Rain and sunshine
intermingle
outside my window
but the television stays the same
The television
constantly
constantly
constantly
...
I am consistently amused
in my dreams
Laying in my solace
waiting for the impending
headache.
I listen to the stories
of other minds
of happenings when other people
get out
Go
searching or just
keep living
26days

spit and conversation

No new details
Just spit and conversation.
27days

Marquis de Sade

Breaking boundaries
Flaccid
limp
boundaries
Rebelling
Rebelling
rebelling
rebelling
Playing with time
playing with minds emotion
Playing with anatomy
Imagining
Imagining places
Imagining us in places
Imagining places
Imagining people
together
Breaking boundaries
Loving
Liking
But together
understanding
Erotically understanding
angst
tension
Breaking boundaries
and loving
and hoping to understand
One day

BASQUIAT

In my former life
I was Basquiat.
Everything was political.
Then i came back as a black woman.
Politics, politicized.

28 days

I sit silently
in hopes
that I break through this glass ceiling.
I am giving my self 28 days
to greatness
After that...
I haven't given it a thought
If I am not careful
I will become a jack of all trades
and a master of none.
Post modern
So dull
So gray
So I give myself 28 days
Then I re-evaluate
Gotta find so many things
amidst the rubble
of a life
where anything goes
and all is celebrated
I never wanted life to be like this
I never wanted life to be like this
28 days.