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Chapters (50)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Epigraph
  6. WIND IN A BOX
  7. WOOFER (WHEN I CONSIDER THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN)
  8. TALK
  9. BLACK HISTORY
  10. ROOT
  11. I. MJ FAN LETTER
  12. II. A FEW RUMORS CONCERNING MR. POTATO HEAD
  13. III. OMNIPOP, 1982
  14. IV. RSVP
  15. THE BLUE BARAKA
  16. THE BLUE BORGES
  17. THE BLUE BOWIE
  18. THE BLUE ETHERIDGE
  19. HARRYETTE MULLEN LECTURE ON THE AMERICAN DREAM
  20. ORACLE
  21. MAUSOLEUM
  22. IT’S A SMALL WORLD
  23. I. New Orleans Piano Genius
  24. THE BLUE KOOL
  25. THE BLUE MELVIN
  26. THE BLUE SEUSS
  27. THE BLUE STROM
  28. PINE
  29. A GIRL IN THE WOODS
  30. THRESHOLD
  31. THE WHALE
  32. VARIATION ON A BLACK CINEMA TREASURE: BROKEN EARTH
  33. VARIATION ON A BLACK CINEMA TREASURE: BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUES
  34. TOUR DAUFUSKIE
  35. A POSTCARD FROM OKEMAH
  36. THE BLUE TERRANCE
  37. THE BLUE TERRANCE
  38. THE BLUE TERRANCE
  39. A SMALL NOVEL
  40. WIND IN A BOX - —after Lorca
  41. WIND IN A BOX
  42. WIND IN A BOX
  43. WIND IN A BOX
  44. IMAGINARY POEMS FOR THE OLD-FASHIONED FUTURE
  45. EVERYBODY GOES TO HEAVEN
  46. IT CAN’T BE GOOD SITTING AROUND IMAGINING YOUR DEATH
  47. THE HERITAGE CHANNEL
  48. WIND IN A BOX
  49. NOTES
  50. PENGUIN POETS

Mud is thicker than what is thicker than water. Pull your head up by your chin straps. Put the pedal to the metal. Peddle to the middle. Put the medal on the pedestal. I pledge Sister Sledgehammer & Father knows beds, but I am not my breather’s keeper. I pledge to earn every holler & if found guilty, I pledge to repay my Bill of Rights to Society. From me to shining me. Money, money, money, monkey. We’re number none. Our number’s done. E Pluribus Unumbskull. For war & several fears we go. Praise be to Guard. Slops & slobbers. Maladies & Gentrifications. Don’t kill us, we’ll kill you. With lobotomy & Jesus for all.

ORACLE

ORACLE

What was it you wanted to know? Television is very good and useless if you have no memory. I was going to say there will be no end to the rift between you and your mother. But then acceptance is a fine, fine name for defeat. A closet filled with shoeboxes with no shoes? Has she done a lot of walking away? And Pops tap-dancing on the remote? The greatest mystery to Man is Man and the universal beauty of Clint Eastwood’s face. On the Animal Channel, an Asiatic Black Bear adheres to a pear tree. How close are you willing to get, if it means getting eaten? What kinds of weapons do astronauts take into space? Look, the world is everywhere: satellites, end tables, the pink and white poinsettias outside the church; reunions and degrees. All those radiant asterisks . . . Soon it will all make sense.

MAUSOLEUM

MAUSOLEUM

Well, let’s get right to it: my parents live in a mausoleum. It’s never too late for someone to kill someone else. No obit says of the recently dead: “He was cruel, he was low down and selfish, the world is brighter without him,” but wouldn’t that be great? In October: the leaves, the leave-taking. Here, you will not be getting something for nothing. It is not all new or available for a limited time only. Here, one gets more things to get more things. When the blood exits, it does not return. And one day maybe you find a box of your mother’s poems in the basement. Wouldn’t that be great? And to do nothing! To grow huge and short-breathed like a mantle of what-nots. Like the elderly. Like a childless couple with three cars. Like a house with a television in every room.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD

IT’S A SMALL WORLD