Stage Directions For Newer Slam Poets Or Actors: Ramble Or Rant This As If You Are Mad. Your Tempo Or Poignant Pauses Should Be Thoroughly Inconsistent Throughout. Otherwise, Make It Your Own, In Your Own Way.
Deprivation. I’m at a train station, quarter past nine, last in line, a paper with fine… Print in hand, demand a refund, rejected, neglected, sent home, I bore through tomes of the arcane, feigning strength in weakness, cheekiness hidden by burning the book and looking behind me, seeing Cthulu or Shaka Zulu in my mind but behind in the game about three innings… Listening to angry rock and old school hip-hop, pretending to be nothing, something out of this mind, divine ability, thrilling me and killing me, inspiring a rush of words, unfurling my life into strife and love, doves adorning a brilliant tapestry, history repeating, rereading, deeming life unfit for death, kids doing accidental crystal meth. Found a place in my heart where the wild things start, and they end on a high “C,” free, but spurring it unto reality, so I go outside, and seek destiny, less than three in the morning, still mourning loss, picturing crosses with my picture nailed on top, left to rot and wither in the sun. At least it’s fun for the masses to throw stones, as I moan in the heat, beat my feet to the wood, do what I would to remember my world – green, blue, twirled – around a nuclear fusion explosion, commotion about locomotion, arguing physics in math class, while the other boys creepily check out hot ass! Writing poems instead of numbers, encumbered by my brain, but still vain, grab my man boob – because I’m lame, tame, planning to work it off, cough and never do, will probably still have the beer gut at twenty two, I think. I drink vodka, but lots of water and cranberry juice. I know how to roof. I know of life there’s proof; and I’m ready to go, so young but so finished, blemished, lessened by comprehension of English, bringing this to true cacophony, allotting time for a conclusion, praying they choose to keep this music going.
