25

ACOUSMATIC SOUND
(or 25 Random Things About Me)

For all my friends on Facebook

Born into absence
A waving shadow lurking on every corner
The usual tropes of Blackness: Mississippi, Alabama, Ghetto, Grits
Hercules with a cane
To cut into the world, to scratch at the resistance
I slept like a falling comet, shedding skin

My couplets would not adhere
Declaring Victory in the War on the Body
Men in sequined dresses lip synching to Gospel House
Youngbloods young sons blazing
Spending all my nights in twilight
A song from the second throat

A room full of attributes:
(It's not a hometown story without the Electric Slide)
Create a context for itself, in the context of no context
Smell of dust and day-old sweat
Tattooed ‘A’ above the heart
A gesture undertaken in the face of saturation

Your Greatest Hits ain’t like mine
Cracks in the clouds beyond the yellow prairie
The non-guilty conscience regreting the things undone, underdone
The kinds of silence found in a black man’s face
Yes I am, but I’m not that one
This is not a story to pass on

His standard farewell phrase: Break Free