"Some passengers abuse us especially those who are drunk.

 

But I never quarrel with them because, if I do,

 

then tomorrow they will not ride in my rickshaw."

 

 

Manoj Singh, footcab driver.

 

(from Happy)

 

"if you have something to protect, you take up the sword."

I'm pretty sure I just heard my mother refer to lovebugs as "sex bugs".

Everybody loses. Will it make you better or worse.

 

• Mickey Ward (paraphrased)

 

"... America is like "People's Republic of Spring Break"… No one's pursuing fulfillment; everyone's pursuing happiness – and those are two different things. I'm really fulfilled; am I happy, am I laughing all the time? No."

 

• Bobcat Goldwaith

more or less

the route:

me. and Essalie.

Bro. Ali

Because,

One day,

You'll decide to go to the Post Office first...

And see a person that you've probably been speaking to politely for the past year...

And wonder how each of you know each other...

Before he starts to tell you the history of the town...

And his mother whose house stood where we are now; who lived to 117...

And asks if "you know Angela Davis"...

And shows you a 40someoddyearold image of their embrace...

And says that he's been asked by some guys like Dr. Dre to do a history of Compton...

What it was like before it was "Compton".

And bigotry

And violence

And retaliation

And cognitive dissonance...

And you think you hear a choking up...

And references his hat that you noticed before stamped "Buffalo Soldiers"...

And duty...

And you see a desire to part..

And a wiped tear...

And a reluctant shake..made "Brotherly" by your impulse...

And a name given hesitantly...


"Just call me ___"


.

""Every culture against white! We kill them like they kill us!"

a voice heard on the street in jersey city, nj.

"We are the sum of all the people who have invaded us." - Pentecost

"All actors are trying to find freedom."

"Anthony Scaramucci IS Donald Trump."


Shields & Brooks/PBS News Hour

pr oo f

you wonder if you believe in **d?

be in pain alone.

process.....

breathe.


when you found relief,


whose name did you call?


.....




Breath is a healer.




Breath is from ___

...a little bit tired of feeling like a black hole for joy...

   I have, at times, wished I could go to sleep and remain that way until things made sense.




   I am currently making my second attempt to read the Qu'ran. It is not going well.



   Yesterday I realized the sensitivity in my armpit is actually a significant swelling, presumably of the lymph nodes. I am also currently congested...strange for summer.




   I have an ant bite on m right forearm (same side as swelling) that won't go away.




   I'm sad that a kitten was killed here weeks ago and that it's mother disappeared without me getting to say goodbye.




   I'm disappointed that the Superwoman I've known for a lifetime is slipping past her superiority. This not a feeling I feel justified in having, but it is there. If I'd been around more, maybe I could have encouraged her more before now....maybe we'd all be different.


 

   I feel betrayed by a person I wanted to give a chance.




   I feel I've lost the energy to argue, particularly if there is no logic.




   Five years ago this February, Travon Martin was killed by someone with no right, duty or responsibility. Since, Black people have been being shown of just what consequence they are to the power structure of this country. It is amazing.....AMAZING....to witness the fear and vengeance ingrained in this working class males of European ancestry in the country. It is truly, truly amazing to see how deeply indoctrinated and socialized this country is.


 

  Perhaps I would have been fine being young in the 50s-60s. As for now.....I regularly wonder where might be a good place to go to live out this existence.



Maybe my view is just too short. Maybe next year will look as different from this one as 08-12 looks from 12-(now).


For the first time ever a few weeks ago, I visited the Monumental Earthworks in Jackson Parish, LA. I felt something there. It feels disrespectful that a highway was built through and part of Mound A was destroyed to build it. I know I am not these people. Perhaps these people would have seen me as a threat. I wish those people were still here. I left finding it poetic if the indigenous brown people still in existence moved north to take the place of their distant cousins.

Again, I have no illusions about my inclusion in that.



 To the best of my current knowledge, none of the above is hyperbole.








(end)

looking at Sonnet 18.


just, for the fist time ever,

noticed the similarity between the words

"chance"

&

"change"


.

 

"…only developed countries take the environment seriously.

 

Poor countries couldn't care less."

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceFvtT6Gung&t=204s

collaboration is hard.

 

While reading this and imaging what it would have been like were I in that professor's class and just how many epithets I could rattle off, it occurred to me that Black, female classmate of mine had been being called by an epithet as a nickname by classmates with no repercussions.

 

 

"Leroy

 

 

I think, at the time, I thought it was her father's name. That was something we did, although I don't think we started doing that until high school….

 

 

At any rate – there were never more than 5 Black kids in that class at that lab school where there was only one class per grade…

 

 

And I just realized that happened.

 

 

In the same school where, in 7^th grade, the basketball coach, the PE coach (and maybe our grammar/history teacher) read  Brer Rabbit in blackface.

 

 

At the private lab school….which I assume would have been considered progressive compared to the public schools.

 

 

 

Hm.

The Old Watermill

the limt.

  so.


  that's what happens when you overtighten your djembe.


  oh.