a good woman

oh it’s great to be a good woman
it’s so great
you speak polysyllabically
you know what an iamb is
because you walk on them
speak up using them

oh it’s great to be a good woman
it’s so great
you can walk on streets without fear
no one reads your mind
the pages are complicated
verbose and busty

oh it’s great to be a good woman
it’s so great
no one ever takes advantage of you
no one ever fucks you over
because that would require
you getting fucked

all the not-so-great women
know a great woman when they see one
and they shake their heads
and they keep moving
being great may be infectious
spinster chic is contagious

because there is nothing more frightening
than when a nigga claims to love your mind
when you know he’s working
with barely half of one
you know something’s not right
something’s not good enough

and you cry
while fearing your goodness
and feeling more like a tome
a treatise
a canon
than a woman

Truth Telling

Most women are taught to maintain relationships at all costs.

I wish I could say he came in the night, wielding a knife, cloaked in a ski mask and darkness.

Most of us are taught to endure it all, to stand up, to fight until our bones break.

I wish I could say I opened the door for a mailman with more than a package on his mind.

Most of us are taught to trust without any basis for trusting, to love in spite of violence.

I wish sometimes that it were some horrific violent attack, where the boundaries were clearly violated and no amount of self-blame would pass muster.

Most women are taught that if they only had changed one thing about themselves — often the one thing they already dislike about themselves — it would have never happened.

I wish that I’d known not to sing that song, to do that dance, to speak that word, to be in that place, in that time — where were my omens? Where were my zombies and lions roaming the streets?

Most women don’t reach out because people speak about these things abstractly, about if it were them the nigger would be dead, if it were them there’d be no excuse, if it were them… well, they wouldn’t do what you’re doing.

I wish I could run away. Do I need this body? I don’t need this body. Who needs a body like this one? I certainly don’t.

Most of us when we’re robbed start to rob the world of ourselves.

I wish I knew why it happened; I can’t trust the reasons and I can’t trust the man I’ve loved for so long.

Most women don’t realize the lack of trust and the overabundance of pain is more than enough reason to leave.

I wish I knew what I did to bring this on.

Most of us did nothing.

naming names

the legal rule of
“don’t ask don’t tell” only works
when there is no love.

what you want.

dim atmosphere raging light
in corners and shadows cast
from barstools and stage steps
from curtains and beaded closures
from trendy skirts and cropped pant
wondered talk and beating threads
walking feet and gesturing fingers
hands heads shoulders necks
popping and rolling about
what’s missing from this fantasy
of erudition and cultural créme
of society

the dim becomes a din
the main event is nigh
the master of swank high
and staggering to the mic
wide eyes warning of
prima dons and donnas
breaking lines and scat
with tales of perdition
and calling it life
and branding it art
and selling it for a breath

i stand up here but i don’t know
what you’re seeing
what you’re feeling
what you’re hearing
as these words come from me
i’m almost afraid to ask
when i wail about death
do you stare at my tits
when i hug my solemn insomniac mother
do you try to force me down
when i marvel at suns reinvented
by dawn and birdsong and white cloud
do you stare at my scars
do you pet my hair
do you look at me
from the thighs up
or the waist down

i feel paralyzed now
by the memories of words unwritten
the stories never told
because i remember who will speak them
and who has to climb this stage
this circus of fools in tweed
runts in polyester rascals in wool
not veiling the hostility on my body
as they proclaim they are cruelty-free
their lives are cruelty-free

your breath destroys the air around my art
your eye castrates the coming dawn of the birth
of my roiling mayhem of singing a verse
without a tune to a tone-deaf horde
i don’t feel pure but i feel unmolested
i don’t feel whole but i feel unbroken
i feel like a dove whose wings
flip the money tables over
and over
and over
instead of fly

candle

your hair fills my life
with the smell of honeycomb
let’s make this hive ours

How Illegal Aliens Took Over Wall Street and America

After the recent historical meltdown, an astute Tweetizen reminded me of the harsh truth that all Americans must face at this time.

We are all investment bankers now.

This crisis has brought us all together under one banner: the mighty American dollar.  And in the span of a couple of days, we all must sit down and think critically about how we reached this juncture without realizing the dire dangers of our risky spending. 

It started with the ambitions of a single illegal alien.  

That’s right.  I said it.  We have no time for political correctness now. If Sen. McCain can suspend his campaign, I can suspend my intelligence to state things plainly. And plainly, my investment banker siblings, it always starts with one.

And we ignored the signs, even when it appeared in the news way back when the Mexicans first began ousting CEOs.

Immigration: The Human Cost

We all shared some chuckles at this early glimpse into the source of the collapse. “Oh, it’s just The Onion! Funny story! So full of layers, like that cartoon character… Shrek! Yes! Full of layers like Shrek said!” I know. I said it too those many moons ago.

But how would we have known then that the takeover would be slow yet diabolically calculated? How would we have prevented the onslaught of countless, hardworking CEOs and bank boards falling prey to the Alien Menace?

Illegal Takeover of Time Warner, May 2008

I think I can say with confidence that we simply forgot what illegal aliens are capable of.

The United States first encountered the illegal alien in 1979 when it sent a few of our brave men and women to the final frontier to look for more resources. (Before my time — not that I’m trying to blame you guys for what’s happening now, but if the fail-shoe to recognize an Alien Menace fits…) We did not have the knowledge and technology to add and subtract until the Windows Innovation in 95, and then again in 98, and then again in 2000. So until then, the aliens had an advantage over us that we could not combat. We lost our ship to their persistence, and their oversexed ways found new methods of penetrating our financial glass ceilings.

Aftermath of Lehman Brothers Hostile Takeover, 1979. Fmr. board member succumbs to internal misgivings about economy.

After that tumultuous time in 1979, we had not heard anything more about the illegal alien threat. Starting in 1982, we encountered new friends and slaves helpmates: the legal aliens. Friendly. Ambitious. Took care of our children. Limited English speaking skills… but that was okay! We could work with them to understand their intentions, subject them to our whims, and send them back home where they belonged. They were funny looking and not quite like us; but that’s why we cared for them and extended our hands in solidarity.

Alien names were only initials then. And home was a phone call away.

Five years passed, and one man saw the horror of the illegal alien resurgence with his own eyes. He wrestled with him. They were equally matched in skill and strength.

That one man is Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor of California and staunch fiscal conservative. A man who knows financial problems are not solved in a day. Woe that he rules California alone, especially with his exceptional foreign policy experience!

The man who stared market irresponsibility in the face without blinking. And survived. And entered politics. Predatory lending in the housing market begins, 1987.

1987, folks. That year is the year that led us to our current state of discontent. We could not choose the right threat. And now it all crumbles around us and ravages our government, takes our tax dollars, and brings us low… low… low.

How the market crisis really began a few days ago. The truth the media is hiding about immigration. Everything you know is a lie.

So, that’s the brutal history, you guys, in a short and hard hitting phocumentary. Illegal aliens are running amok, and we have a very short period of time to deal with them before they deal with us. We have a very tough fight to secure our borders and our securities, to learn really hard math and take reckless chances, to protect four of our five homes from foreclosure. And fighting the illegal aliens is the only way out. Call your congresspeople. Let’s take back Wall Street. Let’s take back America.

Breaking: Google Earth! Not you too!