yusef lateef. the plum blossom.

ahhh

just let it move
like reef

your fingertips

let them brush soft across these surfaces
picking up their textures

maybe scents of them
will be in the ranks
when you next exhale a chorus of your own
()

for the next time you hear me sing a song:

just know that an ink outline
of you
is printed inside my cheeks
reaching all the way down

8

you push these steps along

changeling

you don't know

she would soon be resigned by gravity
the weight of small paint handprints
pressed and smeared across her skin

like hexes
of domesticity.

she lay in bed now, eighteen
thinking of this future
wondering how many little treasures she could leave for herself
while she was being pulled down this shaft
rope wrapped tightly
around her waist, her hips, her ovaries

steadily grinding wheel

to capital LoveCareerResponsibility

she rolled her eyes
and sighed

___


___

cut it outtt!

I watched it, coming
but it still hit me so fast
right in the mouth

I heard the light slap
of blood hitting the wall
and when I could make out shapes again

I stared at it
dripping down

and rubbed my face in it
and my body
and was so sick
and it was everywhere

and it was something
that I could coat myself with

nothing else
seemed to want
to have anything to do with my skin

so I'll take it

___


___

a poem for alex, or for Anyone

I am holding your hand

More importantly,
most importantly,

you are holding my hand

we are staring at the ground
waiting for it to bubble up
spit and slide apart

burst open like a shell
like the shell we've always hoped it was

and we can dive away from the feeling of worms
(feelings of worms)

and pour ourselves into it.

It will be like a strainer

and our clothes, and bumps, and homeworks, and
sorries, and every tongue that made us feel sick,
and every day of standing still, and our Hers,
and our bottom teeths, and and

can all be left sitting on the upside

beneath it, naked of all those crushing breaths

we will wind and flip through the veins
stretching our very own contrails
as far as we ever thought we could

and it will be a burning of More:
like thirsty flares

we will twirl and speed so fast
that I will look over at you
and all I will be able to make out
from the color and the rush

is a smile, hooking so far wide
I'd only seen demo'd before
in tickle fights

oh these canals will be so vast
to screech and flow through like air & our
reaching lungs

a pillow for the brows
to finally relax on to

a space
for us
all of us

chemical(s)

never down

he got up
blasted onto her face
she shot juices on his in return

it's how they do

they go out the front door
faces and mouths dripping
telepathic headbutts to all who gander
gawk
especially the kids

Fuck the children.

they went through town like ghosts
unfettered, floating, fly
nodding to the ones who knew what was good

;see you later;

they stopped by the office
put their hands up, their eyes into the windows
so they could see all them fools
hardening

he and she were play'doh for life
were trickling snot for life
sick. nasty. natural as wind.
inevitable. and there whenever things got too cold

to remind you to guard your grill.

the sun set

Fuck the children

the sun set

Fuck the children

the sun set

;Yo.;



they partied so hard. partied so damn hard.

he was glimmering, sparkling to her.
she was flickering, shimmering to him.

_


am I ulysses? am I ulysses?

"no, but you are now, boy.
so sinister, so sinister

but last night was wiiiiiild"

I have never thrown up substance a day in my life
a night in my life(:)
I just lay, swirling
watching bodies beat and fuck

cut the bottom out of my red cup
and look through it
watching bodies
behind me
next to me
in front of me

isn't that all they ever do?

It feels like I've just been waiting to be told to stop holding my breath
waiting for the coil in my throat to unravel
but it just slides deeper
tightening its fingernails

the smile I see in the reflection looks so silly

_


morning

the wetness, and your breath
on the side of my cheek

it is one of those mornings:

we came out, and the sky was shroud
gray, moist all over

I always feel like I'm catching the world in the middle of something
some gorgeous transformation,
and then I fuck it up by looking too soon

I told you this, and you laughed
and you put your hand on on my face

it was cold from the grass

and you drew a line down,
a crossing swoop

a smiley face of water

"you baaaaaaaaaby"

lying there, the sun began to peek through clouds

and despite the scientific, logical reasoning
I had been weaned on through my late teenage years

I felt the change I'd been imagining in my head for so long.
it was all together
I felt drenched
I felt everything slide in perfect
like our fingers

that morning,
I felt the sun
and it felt just like you

_

attachment(s)

Fire warms! Fire burns! Ooo! Oww!

I will take these black marks
over milquetoast on absolutely any day

So do not worry about me.

As surely as you did,
I chose which Shit I wanted to ingest very carefully

keep that in mind when we talk about these things.

____




"I mean every word I say in my poems"
I said
"I know," she said
"that's the problem"

It grows deeper




__

gadget marrterr #1 (aside)
I do not nod to most of my classmates
when I see them
in the hallway.

When I see them smile,
it makes me want to die for them

______




sorrrryyyy, I'mmm goingggg

Maybe he & she
see us
like I see my afro
Understanding: it grows deeper!




__



gadget marrterr #2 (aside)

I think my best friends can do anything
y'all can have my life



__



Sorry? No.

We are on the couch.

I look over at him
seeing if anything comes.
It does; a Little Warmth meets me
and spreads in my chest,
as I smile
and crawl over to him.

I place my hand on his thigh,
and kiss him on the neck
trailing to his face, his lips.

His hands take a second,
and then start touching.

I press myself against him,
giving all that I can tonight
to make up
for all the days
when I look at him
and feel nothing.

___



Help? No. (bursa aspirations)

I will not put my hands on you.
Even if I wanted to,
I would only get kicked in the teeth.

I will not put my hands on you.
but I will lay them here
for you,
like a towel.

(I chose very carefully.)

__