BooksBarbecue
Back Wind in a Box Save as PDF
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

II. A FEW RUMORS CONCERNING MR. POTATO HEAD

II. A FEW RUMORS CONCERNING MR. POTATO HEAD

Bet in his diary there are blueprints of his faces. Yep, and a little arrow pointing to where his eyeball rolled from the page. Yep, and bounced once on the floor. Bet a diamond glistens in the ear floating in the mason jar on his desk. Bet his collar-bone is made of gold. Bet he’s never heard of Mary Shelley—Hell, bet he can only read sheet music! God-damn, Brother, Prince just changed his name! Doctors say latex is ageless. Doctors say the body is nothing but money. Bet his tongue quivers in a pillbox. Bet his tongue is shy, in debt, and depressed. Bet he sings: Praise be to Edison’s lightbulb and the scalpel! Bet he sings: Praise be to the nursemaid who sells her womb! Bet he sings: Praise be to hyperrealism, hypodermics, John Merrick and the poise of mannequins! Bet it’ll be a closed casket in the end. And enough flowers to cover Texas. And a dozen biographies in the first month! Yep, bet no one finds the diary. Bet no one finds the face.

III. OMNIPOP, 1982

III. OMNIPOP, 1982

Little things like pants get a mind of their own. They get their legs and then their waistband and then the pants begin to run in place. Little things like pants extend the song and fill it with mirrors and glitter. The pants shrink and turn to shrieks. Smaller and smaller, the pants shriek and shrink until they can fit inside other pants, until they can fit the legs of a chimp and then the fingers of a hand—the little pants remember childhood and their longing turns them into panting, the sound a doll makes. The world needs miniature pants. Bless the little pants.

IV. RSVP

IV. RSVP

002003004005006007008009010011012013014015016017Dear K.O.P., this is not a letter
from one of the white girls you met
backstage in Columbus or Lincoln, but from me—
your friend, pretending to be a white girl
in the hope that this time you might reply.
Oh, to be in the head of a pretty white girl!
It’s nearly impossible even for a black boy
raised late in the era of integrated cafeterias,
Mtv and soap operas. By now your experiment
must be nearing its sad inevitable conclusion.
Are you asking yourself: Am I the beginning
of beauty or am I the end? I’m fairly sure
that’s not something white girls ask themselves,
though it’s something everyone wonders
about them. Africans, Asians, Martians, Apes—
they love them some white girls and you
have to wonder: is it all the PR (from Helen
of Troy to Mary Christ to your Elizabeth Taylor)?