he was very very upset
lionlike and hungry
a redwood
threatening to fall
he moved against everything
was hot and indifferent
a rogue planet out of its ellipse
spinning wanting to knock the universe down
as indignant as a river quelled
then hurling houses and cars in the provincial lowlands
his intent was huge
a ration of hurricanes
he was all horrible weather and hell
we tried to calm his body
but it took a world to stop him
he was a mississippi now
lawless arrogant and seeking corpses
his anger was the heaviest humidity
it smothered speech and reason
he had broken instinct
and lost sight of the interim choices
he saw the knife
it made itself pretty
shone starbright among the blunt things
it boasted
stating what it could kill
it romanced him
told him of death work and glory
of rising from the starlit swamp of midnight in stealth
and becoming moon dust
told him of exorcising the heat consuming his flesh
cutting to bone then scraping there
feeling the core of that man splinter
told him of letting breath go with each strike
then falling back into his senses
the knife offered him sweet delirium
it offered relief
revenge and rhetoric
it lured him to handle it slow
and kiss its sharp luminescent watery edge
i begged him
said
“man, he’ll get his
catch him someday when atrocities
and the calling voices that chant in madness
no longer tour the night gathering corpses”
i said
“move into light brotha
with the country seeking to kill you
the city denying you work
every billboard defaming you
you brotha
from a lifetime of disappearing brothas
from the tumult of blue addiction
from the indecipherable messages
of stuttering illiteracy
move into light
please
black boy with huge hands
wild in the moonlight
walking strong on the pleading faces”
he ran out the door
knife in hand
the howling night watching him go
going to get whoever hurt him
crying with fever
i called
“please
you have been owned
sold and replanted in metal gardens
then left to rust
you were once african and exotic
then when modern art was
discovered to be a farce
they looked to tear you down”
i follwed him
the cadence of his breath a locomotive
his skin was screaming
i said
“brotha
i know what it is
the cultural loneliness
to be the antithesis of beauty
to feign oblivion to scars
to be the formal joke of the city
to be alien and advertised as such
brotha
each step tonight shrinks possibility
only deeper night ahead
laughing death shirtless in the broad avenues”
i tried to use anything to turn him
people were stopping
watching him rant and run
mothers in shock remembering losing sons
men suddenly thrust back to injury
whole skies of infinite thunder rising and coming closer
minutes working down his life like acid
but he was fast looking for that man
it was war distilled into lava
a chant carmeling anger into heat
his muscles and mouth were taut
there was nothing open about him now
he turned and looked
he didn’t see me
his face was gone
eyes abandoned
he was all instinct
swinging and oblivious
a series of tied screams
bigger now than anything real
i said
“before you go into that place
wherever he is on what corner or shadow
before you call his name from the living
and hover there
cells spinning
the sky frenzied around you
before that deep silence drifts in the from the wharf
and dampens darkness and mutes the stars
consider next year or your children
think think think think think think think
brotha
you cannot be such heady turbulence
don’t be animal in sight of the available rhetoric
come home and we’ll talk
we’ll curse him together
we’ll hit the walls
then someday soon in the streets where he
languishes waiting on his uncashed checks
we’ll carry the day my friend
we’ll call him a
punk assed motherfucker
and move on”
