Works Presented

4 joy		moving blues
poem 4 me & u		charlie haz ashtma
upon being confirmed		why i limp
when i am shooting like this		summer basketball poem
loneliness iz		bus poem #5
at 15		the pointguard's poem
alfreda		bobby newsome's soliloquy

Note: (000, YYMMDD) = the approximate Yahoo Message Board entry number and date.
Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and line phrasing are as originally posted by the author.

i know u joy in the silent corner of laughter where the world regrets calls back its daggers time & time again 2 late

i once a fat child once a stutterer once odd & slow once asthmatic waz formed at the expense of the world i marginal i omitted i square

joy those people who bark at u who make gutteral noises at yo heaviness who find the hipness standing square on yo's don't know that yr mother may wish u were different & that when u comes home she takes exeption 2 your short hair & yr father explains 2 company that u r ugly but sweet & yr mother challenges u 4 wearing red & that maybe u hanging yo head iz a hundred yrs old & that yr mother waz made at the expense of a fairskinned world & that short haired girls who r dark & heavy know all the news is old the comments on u being a bear from yr father old hash the terrible gawking yrs past its sting

joy the earth iz cruel with perfect people we watch their backs az they know one another we foreign we liability we inhabitants of a world running from r faces know lonliness we know time & age we know romance from a distance we know the carnival from the river we know that only the air is benign we know dreams of waking up az someone else we know mornings when wounds bleed profusely & no one anywhere seems 2 really care

Romus © Copyright, 1999

sometimes we all move like the blues when we travel south we fly twist then pan out a deep blue green in the mississippi delta

we r moving blues guitar falling side mouthed bending in the midnight hour a deep blue a lowering tune of a southern accented love whiskey may & the catfish june skinning gin dying in 2's we r moving blues

my mother moves blues a deep alabama blues tuscaloosa & an uncle's untimely death a father a knee deep sorrow gone before an apology blues upon blues south upon north & the no good news of hiz death of hiz drinking of the halting of hiz breath of the late november cools of the blues

sometimes we all move like the blues

Romus © Copyright, 1999

how do i survive 2day brotha across bitter rooms where r blackness is hysteria in crowds where it iz a little pain an accusation from a lonely corner? brotha how do i survive 2day with this hungry night draped over my gaunt shoulder? the 2 of us in this room full of people among the chatter balancing the world like 2 black forests burning incensing the air with r smells me & u 2 continents with a memory of hunger denying the kinship of r respective silences

& i waz very very uptight birmingham 4 little black girls on yesterday sunday their corpses a declaration of war then the room & borroque music where we r conferencing on literature u across the room avoiding my eyes the polite absences amid the banter & me searching the room 4 a place 2 cry

Romus © Copyright, 1999

charlie haz asthma does not run or hop does not chatter nor hum or balance on fences back flip or flip flop does not chart strategy or intricate defenses does not dash then stop does not wander the wharf & peer through telescope lenses does not high kick or karate chop nor iz he a noise in a cackle of boys many in the big bay windows at downtown curio shops

4 charlie energy iz expensive a casualty beyond mortgage & mind a wish wild an evening without wheezing coastlines clear & mild a rare & wonderful find a healthy child with 10 perfectly formed fingers a singer a dancer a runner possibly a romancer tag then go an arbitrary chancer an unimpeeded try running costs...simply put & the world rushes by & beautifully does on thin straight legs relative 2 sickness everything flies or seems 2 efficiently motor seems 2 spin & speed & never languishes last 4 want or need strides eazy & continually effortlessly leads

& becuz charlie translates weeds & pollen in2 sullen gray flowers & spring in2 bedridden days countrysides & farms with their animals & hay- far from marvelous alabama & red clay a threat sending sickness ripening like heavy lungs in the myriad month of may we stay & laugh charlie tells us all about pointing hiz toes & running with style about playing pop warner football & making defenders miss if only he could run the ball & not have 2 gasp & stall he would indeed he sayz play strong & tall he would find that crack in their wall & juke & shake plant a hard step & take the clear horizon north ...2 freedom

Romus © Copyright, 1999

i waz of the sheer breathless edge of flying standing in the churning crowds the welcomed weightlessness & hush golds & mauves & blues ribboning the tall city the new universe of my suddenly alive & resplendid with discovering stars

easiness hummed a slow chorus on my skin i was arranged in such loose candor the cool city gathering shadows & incense jazz tuning its various instruments on the promenade in the swirling noise interpreting early moonlight pushing silver in2 the taut recesses of perfumed memory

beginning night pulled its eyelids shut drew concaved navy across the city dusk & in the incipient dark where eloquent longings flooded me like thousands of gentle awakenings unfolding all over me like a beautiful country in the first hour of the summer day i moved in the slow hour like 3 tiered jazz i moved in the languid hour like the euphoria of laying in the stream of a cool open window & finally sleeping i moved in the wandering hour like velvet caressing velvet

oh, u should not have kissed me that way there were all the faces longed 4 u & the tactile senses consumed u & i waz high u should not have given me your taste & planted such starlit gardens in my memory should not have invited me 2 sit in the gathering beam of moonlight where all things translate in2 shirley horn jazz & the miles of dark far away country lay out like campuses in rare privacy oh, the beautiful vancancies of the late evening & us among the crowds in the festival night nolonger unsure holding hands 4 the very 1rst time

Romus © Copyright, 1999

atlantic & new york 2 streets meeting 2 angery stretches of asphalt raw & cracked sean came & went here on atlantic & new york this intersection after his stabbing settled back into the ground

i watch the traffic come at night i watch the light changes there iz something about the city when someone u know iz murdered something implicit in the action like time iz skipping & slipping

here at atlantic & new york the women r high they float across the street they jaywalk the cars agree & never touch them & the brothas congregate but i do not hear them i have come to understand that when i walk the streets & feel the cold spaces when the whole world iz dark & the action plays strange & brothas work their way toward dying that there iz an easiness in waiting & that sean may have known what i am coming to know that on atlantic & new york all r eulogies will differ only in the names

Romus © Copyright, 1999

what do i have? my jumper under these lights in starlit parks on crystal frigid nights like gospel in conception i fling a galaxy by my might moonswirl when i hit oh, how tight the function of my wrist sensual az light rain a testament to my beauty when i am shooting like this

& what a legend i will make when the game iz through what gothic stories reverberate of men who went 4 36 of men who despite all hostile bodies & reaching hands rose & sank the 2 & each jumper iz new iz gold in the pointguard's mouth an eazy walk an illicit kiss what grand elegance what shimmering history when i am shooting like this

& all iz all release, oh, release the shot oh, how the rim iz hunted amidst the velvet swirl of the spinning ball & time step behind me 4 2night i cannot miss in this small corner of the vacant city i own all physics & aim when i am shooting like this

Romus © Copyright, 1999

that summer where we were lean & sprinted the span of r bodies down basketball courts in a storm of elbows & fakes the posts would pivot & lean then the thunder of leaping at the missed shot fingers illustrating a cool path 2 god shoulders unhinging at the ribs & the rebound skipping across a sea of black hands & curses then the firerun 2 the other rim the guards in quick katherine dunham the 7footers spinning & spinning change change in the jerking net in the lost left show change 4 the ball spinning like a red planet change 4 the mean cut terrrance took rock cuffed appearing in the lane with 3 strong steps & leaping in2 an air gathering niggas like night in2 an air gathering niggas like night

Romus © Copyright, 1999

...oceans of people talking in circles looking past u 4 something better

Romus © Copyright, 1999

the day waz falling r toil behind us we new sproutings under tons of wearines clung 2 the bus r different hands r memories set aside no sound waz made other than the clattering ride we tired laborers breathing the air & sitting there made r case against the world & public transit & the rancid seats & crying babies then realized r defeat

the city pushed with its last energy its people in their heavy cars the streets full 4 miles the leaning structures in sleepy granite asphalt tuning down corners that end in old age & we traveled the avenues 2 run down 4 speaking exhausted colorless from the veteran's hospital past redondo the thousands of stops along the way & the old men dragged the young men bowed stricken with the day & the lovers sat 2 tired 2 kiss their hands hardly touching their wills insistent their charm a chore the children found the ride a bore az their mothers softly snored & the dreamers walking the distant shore started 4 home

i waz there at dusk a face in the churning crowd that sat waiting 4 the bus soft brown & indigo & boarded & smiled az well az i could the bus driver understood that i wanted to rest then eventually laugh & recall the afternoon & its events its ebony pleasures & az we swayed like tired reeds the bus driver said while never even turning hiz head "look i love this time of day the city climbs 2 this manages its air & puts its colors on display the mauve the crimson the brown the gray the subdued blue the deliberate mood the loudness gone away oh, this time of day in the beginning moonlight why even the concretes r not cracked & the streets all end in gold oh, look at the beautiful city splendid readying itself 4 night" & i looked it waz true like while we slept some artist had painted the rooftops & the avenues such reds & yellows such earthen hues & the bus moved on exchanging people excusing their indifferent shadows while my heart laughed outloud through the new world

Romus © Copyright, 1999

when i waz young & thought myself 2 be immortal iron quicker than a magician's hands when i was definite & az brackish az tidal pools the earth called my name from the other side of the world oh, 2 be a boy 15 & wide-eyed strong-kneed faster than the falling night i could hear far away places my crude rituals my longing 4 the sky & i would often become lonely there in pomona where the valley dammed my river & let the universe fly by

Romus © Copyright, 1999

we r fast sudden & exact announced & imparative we sing r strides down the court we run we fly like thunder we roar & the afternoon iz awake we last the length we streak we fake & i dangerous with all the attendant quick adjectives lead the break how glorious the control the skill effortless & unaware fingertip smooth i call the ball's name i curl through a thicket of straining knees the continents shudder my bigmen lean out of confusion & do the same i am the fastest person on earth this action wild & precise mathematics & fine frenzy this 20 ft between here & the rim charts the glory of the game i charge in2 clarity in2 the flashing spaces between the sugarshacking pivots & posts moving in tall sections across the lane but i do not shoot i deal love assist! in the bigman's hands & the hope that he rises & the hope that he rises

Romus © Copyright, 1999

at the mini mart alfreda waits the day passes the asphalt shores & recedes concrete darkens in2 even grittier bores fumes & exhaust change shifts around the little blue store

alfreda waits possibly 4 her ride minutes overact the late afternoon drama az hours boon & fall like tides & already there iz ritual magazines 2 papers traffic & the corner an interesting person or 2 a revolving act in a cauliflower show & alfreda iz such a young girl with locks her mother made with dark soft cheeks & her school uniform gas pumps pass in & out of shade & whatever romance alfreda saw in the boy 3 hrs ago who brought gum or the employee who came 2 be paid or the gold toothed fellow with skin like a greasy plum iz gone someone haz 4gotten alfreda oh, how small a child against the tired & rushing home world oh, what an overlooked concern in shiny falling curls

Romus © Copyright, 1999

pressing, pressing

"when u're winning people keep pressing & pressing they just keep coming like u can do it all winning winning i didn't understand when a few yrs ago it waz all so eazy i could like go 2 the next level u know get tougher higher badder meaner than anyone i waz fighting yeah quicker tougher higher u know mannnnnnnnn sometimes i could come in2 a fight & the whole world would have 2 bow 2 me i waz badddddddd man a machine all action with no stop called me a blur in that ring but people kept pressing & pressing & pressing & i kept pressing & pressing just trying to please them 2 please myself u know i pressed & pressed/ u know the first time i lost it waz all so unreal fake like u know it waz like i would have another chance 2 beat him like that time didn't count it waz like it just happened just came up on me u know like night when u're sleeping it comes so quiet so eazy it doesn't need no welcome u just find it sitting dark across the world it was like walking in2 night i didn't even know it happened just found myself there & my name wasn't called the ref held up hiz hand & i wondered how i didn't do enough whatever it waz somehow time had left me like whatever i had it took like i waz sleeping u know in the night & woke up 2 find the day half gone"

Romus © Copyright, 1999