Monday, October 4, 2010

guest post for a rainy day

George Wallace, a friend of mine and talented poet responsible for organizing a lot of the readings I've been to in the city, e-mailed me a poem this morning. He maintains PoetryBay.com as well as the Long Island Quarterly. The weather in Manhattan is rainy and cold and dreary today and it has been for a week and it's going to be for a week more. I've been feeling hints of depression and lack of inspiration, my insides mimicking my outsides. I haven't written a decent poem in weeks. But I really liked his so I wanted to share it with everyone. Sometimes things just happen and the reasons escape us and we go to bed and we wake up with headaches and we take the train to work and we don't know how any of it was possible before coffee.


biggie smalls is rapping on the radio


biggie smalls is rapping on
the radio -- biggie smalls
that’s his name – his
name's wallace too –
that’s right wallace like me
christopher george latore
wallace -- but everyone
calls him notorious
B.I.G. & he's got a 
cousin named Lil
Deceased or something
close to that -- which
& i know it's a little
obvious but I like
that name too & I
like how biggie spits
out his words -- drawls
them out -- a brooklyn
kind of loose easy action
he spits out his words
like broken teeth or
pieces of cement
& i like how
he tells a story
i mean not in the
usual way -- o & by
the way biggie smalls
is dead – shot four
times in the chest
in southern cal
in ‘97 -- that’s
thirteen years
ago -- it’s a
shame --
it’s a
mystery --
like wikipedia
says the murderer
was never
found –
o & by the
way last week
a college kid
jumped off
the gw bridge –
he was gay he was
from new jersey & his
roommates played
a trick on him &
now he’s dead –
people jump off
bridges a lot -- never
make a splash
-- but this one
makes a
splash &
the world
sits up from
its big stew
of nothingness
& says something
-- & now everyone’s
saying something even
ellen degeneres who cried
about it on national tv – every
body has an opinion & for
chrisssake the college kid
had a name -- tyler clementi
– nothing big nothing
notorious -- just tyler
& nothing’s ever going
to change in this world –
christopher george latore
wallace was just trying to
make some money for his
daughters -- tyler clementi
was just trying to find some
love – & me I’m trying to
make out the words
to this song –  there’s
words for everything –
this world’s a big stewpot
of words – this world’s
a big mystery  – this world
sits up & then it lies back
down again in its big
stew of nothingness &
dreams -- who killed biggie –
who killed tyler clementi --
murderers never get
caught -- ‘if you
don’t know,
now you know,
biggie’

1 comment:

  1. George Wallace is a good man.

    I like the "big stew of nothingness." Not the stew, but the line.

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