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teller, what you forecast for me today,
    fortune teller, fortune teller, what you forecast for me today,
    cuz i ain’t got no time to be messing with yo yesterday.
    even though you came in december be my january man,
    i say, even though you came in december be my january man,
    but you know i’ll take you any month i can
    but you know i’ll take you any month i can.

HAIKU
    how fast is the wind
    sailing? how fast did i go
    to become slow?

BLUES HAIKU
    let me be yo wil
    derness let me be yo wind
    blowing you all day.

BLUES HAIKU
    am i yo philly
    outpost? man when you sail in
    to my house, you docked.

HAIKU
    my womb is a dance
    of leaves sweating swift winds
    i laugh with guitars.

HAIKU [
for Joanne
]
    sweet woman dancing
    your morning sails i see
    your riverbound legs.

POEM
    1.
    i am dreaming
    i have spread my dreams out like wings.
    i have selected today a dream
    about flying and i take off
    sailing on your blue smile.
    for today it is enough.
    2.
    all this year
    i have heard
    my pores
    opening.
    3.
    i have told
    you my name
    so there is
    tomorrow.
    4.
    see me through
    your own eyes
    i am here.
    5.
    let us be one with
    the earth expelling anger
    spirit unbroken.
    6.
    we are
    only
    passing
    through let
    us touch.
    7.
    come again inside
    me let us take another
    turn at loving.
    8.
    i hear your smell
    running across my threshold.
    shall i hold your breath?

Shake Loose My Skin

SONKU [
for Nneka and Quincy
]
    love comes with
    bone and sea
    eyes and rivers
    hand of man
    tongue of
    woman love
    trembles at
    the edge of
    my fingers.

HAIKU
    c’mon man hold me
    touch me before time love me
    from behind your eyes.
TANKA
    c’mon man ride me
    beyond smiles teeth corpuscles
    come into my bloodstream
    abandon yourself to smell let
    us be a call to prayer.

POEM #3
    I gather up
    each sound
    you left behind
    and stretch them
    on our bed.
                   each nite
    I breathe you
    and become high.

HAIKU
    how still the morning sea
    how still this morning skin
    anointing the day.

SONKU
    i feel your
    mouth on my
    thighs immac
    ulate tongue.

SONKU
    i hear the
    sound of love
    you unstring
    like purple beads
    over my breasts

HAIKU
    i am who i am.
    nothing hidden just black silk
    above two knees.

HAIKU
    in a season of
    beautiful clowns betrayals
    unapologetic.

HAIKU [
question from a young sister
]
    1.
    what’s wrong with being
    freaky on stage you a stone
    freak in yo own skin.
    2.
    at least we up front
    about this freakdom. at least
    we let it all hang out.

POEM
    Good morning, sex. How do you do?
    Tell me how life’s been treating you.
    You say what? Sex is and sex ain’t
    sex wuz and sex wuzn’t
    sex should be and sex has been
    on Times Square billboards
    on television, in the movies,
    in the lyrics dripping off pouting lips.
    You say sex is in the drinks we drink
    the laughs we laugh
    the walk we walk
    the smells we smell as we open
    our eyes and legs and let the funk spread.
    You say sex is dark basements
    lights turned out, bodies turned on.
    Sex is a breakfast table full of
    leftover wine and smiles.
    Sex is kinky & clean shaven
    sex is straight & gay
    sex is do it anyway.
    Comes in twos and threes.
    Comes on time. Late.
    Sex is love. Unlove.
    Comes with danger
&
beauty
    Comes in clean and shadowy places.
    Sex is life. Death. A gig.
    Sometimes you need it in the
    Morning. Afternoon. Evening.
    Sometimes it satisfies; sometimes it don’t
    sometimes you feel it in yo’ armpits
    sometimes you feel it in the mind,
    but ah,
ahhh
, when it comes
    this sex, when it appears
    buck naked or clothed,
    when it comes Thelonious Monk–like jazzy,
    when it comes hip hopping like the nite
    ain’t like no other nite; ya
    know what time it is, what day
    it is, what month it is, what year
    it is. When it comes RIGHT, you
    understand that sex is & sometimes it ain’t
    But when it is….

BLUES HAIKU
    i ain’t yo momma
    but i am this lil mama
    who knows how to burn.

BLUES HAIKU [
for Joanne and Val
]
    yall talkin all