Playthings

Ok, so we all had the talk
about how Barbie's not
anatomically correct.
Women don't have
nippleless breasts
thier legs aren't two fold their torso
her eyes aren't the size of her fists.

But we all played with her as kids
we grew up with complexes that beg
the question
"Why are we still pretending?"
I mean, hairless legs is one thing
what about the silicone? Little
Botox for that expressionless smile?
The matching bra and panty ensembles
and the shoes (ah, the shoes)
because everyone wants to be pretty
don't you?

So you brush her perfect platinum blonde nylon for hair
just like she were real
and never wonder if Barbie feels it or about
the power she has over you
(you think it too, in the backround somewhere) perfect hair,
pretty shoes.

This Spring: Grow the Resistance!

So yesterday was the 7yr anti-war protest/concert. I got to perform my little 5min. bit right before Guante in the line up, and you know what? I did alright. My voice was shredded from leading chants during the march, but I managed to stir up some energy I think. Steph was moved to tears, Jess said. And Guante seemed to like my stuff. I did mention that a wrote Make New Friends in response to seeing him perform for the first time. He said he was flattered.
Frankly, I'm glad he wasn't weirded out. But I basically got to share a stage with my own local idol and broadcast a message that the resistance is on the rise! So that was cool. It was everything I said I wanted and a hell of a way to spend the 1st day of Spring.
As for the demo as a whole, it wasn't bad. Over 500 people came out (they had 5,000 in D.C. and in San Fancisco). The community we marched through seemed highly interested in us, too. I'm glad it wasn't the same old parade through Uptown this year. We definately started some conversations in that neighborhood. And as for the concert (which was meant to appeal to new youth in the movement) well, hopefully everybody had a good time. Hopefully someone shows up at our two upcoming events. I would be thrilled if someone said they came because of my poetry. It would be such remarkable validation, I don't know what I would do.
Either way, April brings more sunshine and more poetry slams. And here it comes.

A bit of a rant

Just got my 2010 US census. Still just one kind of white, I see. What really struck me, though, was the question before. "For this census, Hispanic origins are not races" sounds like scary immigration reform to me.
It reminds me of a story I heard once about some people living in California, where they'd lived for generations as Spanish speaking natives. He said "We did not move across the boarder, the boarder moved across us."
Oh, the conquered peoples of america. It is time to stand and be counted.

Words are for Things

 
I walked in imitating The Star
then I receded from the room
waning like a moon
but I’ll just try again
another night of dreaming
oughta do it.
 
There are so many redundancies in my numbers
my conflicted sign and I are having two too many answers to each question
my answer “there are so many possibilities” doesn’t go over often
you seem to want a reason (just one?)
 
but this sky keeps on
changing
and predicting the patterns for centuries cannot prepare the mind
for eternity
that BIG DUMB WORD
for everything
the BIG BANG BOOM
like humanity can really answer it
meat bags on a pile of rock
pounding out new ugliness
 
I aspire to be a concept
So poet, give me my own definition of cliché
and I will walk the Earth unburdened
by matter in the form of motion
light and sound waves aging
and the sight from these eyes that merely interpret.

Reportback on yesterday's protest "Let Marjah Live"

At yesterday's demo, I was having trouble coming up with chants that fit the mouthful "Afghanistan" into any kind of beat. So I sort-of accidentally wrote this poem. I call it "What rhymes with Aghanistan?"

Afghanistan, Afghanistan
more lies about the Taliban
Obama's on TV again
oh, Afghanistan.

Quick- what rhymes with civilian population?
Complete and total devastation
(Oh, Afghanistan)

What's a pipeline doing running
right through the middle of our foreign policy?
Don't know? (really?)
Well, just ask any Afghan citizen
(Oh, Afghanistan, Afghanistan)

They're selling war at every convience store
and all the prices just went up again.
Oh, Afghanistan
----------
Ok, all humor aside, my heart goes out to those families in Marjah. Thanks everybody who made it out to the protest. Now we build for March 20th!

Make New Friends

For that dam-breaking sense
of acceptance
the SURGE of interest
in a world outside ourselves so big
it holds everything as one

I've come to learn what you can teach me
and to show you these things that I've seen
to tell you the story in this, the only way that I know how
and to deliver the message:
that you are not alone, my friend
you have allies in the hear and now

Let us begin, let us discover
what we can about ourselves and each other
because together we are greater
than any # of our individual weaknesses combined

Let's find some new way to communicate
that other's can emulate for years to come
what we created
carried on

Because our voices carry us forwards
and yours soars
I heard you from across this concrete jungle
like a lion roars
It brought me striding through
new open doors to find you
to contribute to the collective mind
that you remind me I belong to
A choir of sorts
and maybe not angels, but agents of change
and I don't think that's so small a charge
when you consider the great pain of living
the daily overcoming that it is to be alive
to choose this path, gladly, and say

"It was nice to meet you"
Which simply does not convey my excitement,
my tongue-tied desire to begin, so until next time
my friend, until next time.

It was sort of a crash and burn scenario

        Let me tell ya, when you hit a
        brick wall it doesn't always
        stop you-it's just in the way.

I was HIGH as a kite, and good thing too
cause it was all that        lying        
                              under      -inner-
L.A.N.G.U.A.G.E.
mumbo-jumbo, you know?
critical thinking questions
-thick stuff-

I was paying my most adamant attention, thinking
I am thi--s close to shutting  the whole
                                              thing
(so don't you dare me)          down.
I wasn't going to be affected
by the weather anymore
I was in for

                                   a lesson, alright.