-Blue Starfish and Black Currents for Breakfast Blues-
when i was very young
i always wanted my own
radio station.
i once heard bola sete
on kbca 105.1 fm
24 hour jazz
in los angeles
broad cast live from
the montery jazz festival
…the quica solo
changed my whole life at age 9
…so i wanted a radio station
for myself and found out
there were sub sonic frequencies
below the common broadcast bands…
so i went and bought one
of those erector sets
for a radio broadcast kit
i could connect to
the heater in my room…
but it did not work…
problem was
they had cut off the heating
and it did not work on batteries….
later i went on to win the science fair
in the 8th grade
at dr. charles drew jr. high school
with a project about
photosynthesis and star fish…
i could never understand why
there was such a wide variety
of colors among the species….
so i went and gathered all the colors
of star fish i could find…
preserved them in
my grand father’s empty bottles
of port and big mama’s
canning jars…
i won the science fair…
what they gave me as a prize
was a battery powered shoe shine brush…
without batteries…
i tried to connect it to the heater
in my room
but the heating still wasn’t on…..
but i was content
cause for me
chambers shoe shine parlor
was the coolist place
in the world
on sunday morings
or saturday afternoon
other than the place
i found all those
beautiful star fish…
that’s the blues
part 2
-for avotche-
i see this poem now
walking out
of chamber’s shine parlor
on the 3rd of july
after multiple poppings
and stealth strokes
that disappear
like lightening
before the thunder
of the thick cotton
rags and brushes
smuggled from new orleans
by river boat queens
brushing off the law
crossing leisurely
between traffic
in the shade
of flashing caution
headed south
towards mr. fatburgers
for a cherry coke
and chilly fritos
on the way
to the mega watts
power station
at 96th and central
in route to
the watts towers
to check
watt’s happening
and sit and talk
with john outterbridge
and david hammonds
about the orgins
of myth and mystery
waitin’ for the rtd
to the burlap
big top
tent meeting
the magnificent brothers
spray cans drawn
in pre grafittic jestures
neon naturals
strobing against
the jet planes
falling
into the sea
buying
scalped tickets
to an after ours
extravaganza
of black circus acts
afrobats and tramp-o-leans
jugglers in high top
stacy adams
biscuits with syrup
impounded
from vermont
avenue
flying trapeezemen
like tumbler pidgeons
diving for worms
and unemployed
rodeo clowns
ridding a 40 ounce
bull thru
a malt liquor
china shop
with empty lasos
starless spurs
limp
with a sawdust sword
buried in their necks
anemic
wounds wrapped
with a bloods bandana
folded like habadashary
just over the heart
hoping for
the red line
and not
the flat line
to long beah
for an audience
with the queen…
-part 3-
BLUES FOR LESS
for les carter
and kbca 105.1 fm
l.a., ca.
u.s.a.
k.alifornia’s
b.lack
c.onsciousness
a.stralality
sketches
17 west
afrikan rain
clouds for rest
crepesculed zen
ith clustered
parallel
wave lengths
over lapping
the air id char
coal seasons
animated
acoustic sub
sonic ash
less remains
of jim
crow dung
reliefed
a cross
the scared
carpet
bagged backs
of angels fallen
off migrations
west urn edge
inshrining south
sin trail in a
digital webb
of marvel
matrixed
in sound
crafts
that hover
camaflodged
in the hick
oryand mescete
emolsions miraging
the hawaiian facades
and shantie
d rooftops
of fat burgers
taco tia jua
nesian
bam booed thai
died rib joints
and conked halos
lye in the kitchen
floors stained
with myrh rays
royal crown
harmonizing come
sunday morning
music affairs
like salmon
rice and egg
sbend
a dick whipped
banana puttin’
indestructable
groove holmes on
the smog face
lips sinkin’
above the hydrolic
serenity of the pink
river a nd satin caddi
lacks convertible reverb
interiors inverted
aquatic effervescence
full of saturday nite
skies and some time
z fresh air
from santa
barbara’s song
poised from
a chest nut
sun rise black
and tan
tilizing
chill
y fritos
and cherry coke
wi/dowz silks pun
descent ion
from the copper
and opiate
over pass
like a pickle
barrell wheel
wagon trane ride
from the loa east
side of
compton hangin’
like strange fruit
zen iredescent suits
spun from festered
gardenia blossoms
sin hues hufflin’
ánd double clutchin’
to wards the mezz
l 9 off ramp
flashin’ saffron
and bronze
hazzard divices
at broadway and man
chester’s vermont mosaic
signaling the changes
of fall’s subtle mask
air raid we be
miles ahead of
the rancid rush
our traffic
in with one leg
richard groovin’
on the third floo
r va cu
ming us and
lan chaney
fixin’ long
island sound
with sin hued
g strings
dealin’
blind jokers
to juli ann
the prez
on holidayze
jammin’
voodoon
syringes in
the plastered
hearts of satin
dolls dukes
in count
her/on
the bottom
of stacked dex
ter dusting
off jimmy
wood n
wind
oz
henry grimes
with dorthy
dandy ridges
matted lioness
fur minted
cherry nector
festered in complete
communion with ire descent
decons and opal breast
missionaries main line
mantra channeling
charismaz and nude ears
for toothless black heirs
concealing renegade novas
in underground prayer
shut in
chambers like hay
joe hyming billy’s
braile may poles
tone drum sticks
counting down
the speckled tale
neon fecies
of purple
gazzles and
milk face zebra’s
lounge
bear backin’
blue brass
dolphins
of holly
wood sirens
buck a
rude bronco
bustin’ onyx
helicopters
and azure
unicycles spinin’
the dillussions
of 4 women
with 3 sounds
twisted
around bobby’s
total eclipse
gyrating
thru topanga
canyons
flamingo sketches
of spain
ish grease
stained mayan
murals got us
bumpin’ on sunset
searching tuquilla
for the worm hole
wes coastin’ on
easterly winds
twisting and shouting
a cross
sand bridges to
catalina’s cajun shore
where we doxy
our veve vessels
with silk tow
roped to the serenity
of ande bayze
silver tide
less drifting
timeless in the
muzed conch
shells alabaster
shimme ring
warm and moist
thru j.j.’z
lofty harlem
air shaft
black lite
velvet lament
like a
single rose
lipped mason
ic matadore
moon walkin’
leisurely
in the oracaled
center of the mescale
scented bull ring
conskrewed
of adobe and red
maized mysterioso
gereld jestures with
sun baked yaya
creviced in a
tangerine lotus
sutra unfolding
beneath peggy’s blue
sky light reveal
ing saeta
and nancy
unzipping her
turquoise
silk nite surrey
over benin gold
ear rings
and african head
dress all the way
out to the
south shore break
water masoned
of corral
and compressed sand
castles cascading
across the topaz
sunset of san pedro’s
industrial complex
where sister mamie
kneals hennings
orsted droning
swedish snaps
74 miles away
from where
the sound
waves
scratch
at oscar’s
topless
bird’s breast
divinating
the paten
leather sea
shells
that drift
in from
un
charted
miles
off shore
muted blue
haze
in the
morning surf
read callender
snapping
taped fingers
at rufus’
broke neck
swing casting
indo/nesian silk
butterfly nets
from burma
at frost
bitten flying
fish navigating
the aer/
o dynamics
of quantum
acoustics
of ocean song
and glacier’s gonged
silence migrating west
with nina to memphis
mouth like a metho
dist preacher’s fetish
face full of crackers
and commencement waving
cotton stained hands
calloused to corral
from 12 strings
gropping 4 crumbs
of air
gil’s wide open
astralkhemical
compos
it
ions
and re
arrangements
of neon
nitrogen and myrh
muting methane gas/
is bayou big tent
over the crimezoned
canopy of south sin
trail the city
of fallen angels
fire birds propositioning
blind dated pygmy
palm trees
like stubble
on an unshaven
country face
where waahaken wild
flowers blossom upturned
in avalon gardens
jammin’ j’z
rich scent
will rodgers park
ing his 56 buick
in the magnolia shade
making blue bland
and or nette
tiajuana moods
sky dive
while hitch hiking
west to north korea
in search of seoul
less trail horizons
point of depatrure
harbouring renegade
novas in chocolet
rappers from mars
bars buried in
blue gene pockets
floodin’ cyber
borders to
el paso
the gallo
port to el segu
ndo navaho evapo
rating beneath
a gangster brim
patched with
a checkerboard rag
time draping
like blue
gardenias from
yesabella’s table
dance carnival
dress float ing
like a mystics mask
clouded over her
llama face reveal
ing blisters
and scarabs on her
minstraled knees
walkin’ the bar
with jug on stilts
of stitt because
the cock tails
tables were too
short and slick
with bad blood
and two marrows
from eves broken
ribs and opened
throats and severed
hearts too out
distance
the rushing heard
or the 1st
and 15th pagentry
of tattered children
finger painting
frowning clowns
on the pocked faced
county sherrifs
texarkanna
border patrol
detaining
vulture dung
and elf fecies
in mid air
riddin’ pogo sticks
one way
down eddy jeffer
sun ave. nude
and strip searched
in the neighbourhhood
precient 4 absentee
landlords
boxin’
tet
her ball
in green me doze
park with hamp
ton hawes
sippin’
grape kool aid
the deer old
stockholm way
teddy bares witness
2 blue fingers
pastzen the ebony
and ivory jug
pre zen bean
bags
across the
ass fault
diamonds
refracting
smog breath
joe
hender
sunny
ra lenze
condensing
dead star
light to lazer
edge terra
for mali ty
resolving
the duality
of being
a fric
an
in
ame
rica
.
.
.
