Spoken Word

I still remember falling in love with spoken word. Seeking a little extra credit, I went to a variety show of the communication department. A student only known to me as the hippie-from-my-rhetoric-of-social-movements-class took the stage. His words and flow painted such beautiful pictures of love, sex. His control of language captivated the audience and captured my imagination. A man who seemed so gross to me the previous day was suddenly Brad Pitt. It has been half a decade since I last saw him perform. Even today, as I read his poems, I can still hear him perform. Bellow are a few of my favs by Jonathan Brown.

I'm not going to lose my arm

headlights pass my sight

on the right side

tables decide sides

bacon grease creeps up

refilling ketchup

and grinding coffee

knuckles on the cheek

I'm bored

my cigarette ash is long

and my water in not

filled up

I worte a phone number on my arm

and said, "I'm not

going to lose my arm."

That Night I Educated Myself

I'll tell you why,

I'll tell you why I got a C+ in my 

poetry rhyme and meter class.

Before the first test

I was screaming poetry on a rooftop

in front of a rock band

on the night

of the president's state of the union address.

King Street was flooded with people.

We made a scene.

We had to pack up and dip before the police came.

By the time I ran to Maybank for my class

I was so charged with adrenaline

I couldn't recall my short term memory.

I couldn't regurgitate specific terms.

Definitions eluded my stabbing mind.

The stream of consciousness was flowing too fast

for me to reach down and catch a definition

swimming on the shallow riverbed.

I was on a rooftop living the life.

I was so charged.

I blew a fuse running the tract meet 

to meet academia

But that was a valuable night.

My pop always says

you can have everything you want in this life

just not at the same time

Well I made my decision

and I wouldn't trade it

for a water down version of blaa.

The lessons I learned on the rooftop

go beyond everything English 395

had to offer that day.

I failed that first test

because I was out getting educated.

Body Language

There is a shadow on the wall

chasing another shadow

in the moonlight.

The motions

make more noise

than the choice words spoken