Works Presented

cuba		little pentecostal churches
but u r wild		tomieko
tanka		4 anna
upon a badddd man's passing		rising eazy
the caterpillars		the hidden country

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.

cuba must be a valuble place 2 u iz it like memory half clear or a movie where all the characters r so beautiful & leave their lovers in planes wrapped in burnished silks the men the women the cigarettes that once trailed smoke like mauve ribbons then the hero spoke in a spanish we all wished we could talk the roll of the cascading r's in a tremulous procession?

cuba waz once known 4 its fruit its scarves of pineapples cuba waz once nappy with sugar cane

cuba waz once a carnival a colorful whirl a fantasy gambling & grinning & laughing & strolling cuba casteneted fireworks over the bay like a great appluase at a wonderful party & the sleepy romances guitar resting in the gardens cuba waz once an illicit kiss cuba an exchange of wet tongues

now it iz always latenight in cuba no one iz sleeping prostsitutes cover the sidewalks like dirty water the wide avenues r second hand at midnight the cabana's spread their legs & r violated in french we walk havana, lydia it is a neglected cathedral & we violate cuba further we turn days that examine hunger minute by minute this is an island country not carribean not tropical az firm brown thighs this iz a empty ship with no port we gather tonight in the name of heat cuba our hostess tomorrow lions await the christains in the coliseum we r them foriegners in the cheap hotels the night pulls silence shut upon the windows we dream in the hot rooms

Romus © Copyright, 1999

the minister waz huge in a huggable way in a usable sort of way in a usual way in a day lined with track houses running the street like a chant in the sway of sunday palms & psalms & the calm expressions of the early afternoon the sistuhs would pray & pin their piety & duty the preacher said "come what may we pray" & the sistuhs say "amen" & the heathens holler "HURRAY!" the crowd stayed the sermon like a mountain climbing itself like an instance bereft of ambiguity explicit az open clay & the huge preacher preached that sinners would pay & that payment would be punctual would pinch the wayward would inch the colossal predications in2 decline would whip at the wharf & boil the bay the huge preacher slayed the silver headed brothers with one foot in the grave & when he finally gave hiz hand 2 the deacon in gratitude when he took leave of the pulpit it groaned having learned about hell in the most horrible way having held the tyraid of that earth of man having had the heel translate directly & the hams hammer verses through the feet & the neat elders in opulent musk buttoned their britches & beathed in the dust some near the cool open window sat in the faraway billowing with their eyelids heavy relaxing their knees so their bellies won't bust wanting sleep more than jesus dreaming of chicken & greens laced in bacon fat in vivid color & the benediction waz coming like the last sistuh in the prayer line like the last announcement & recognition like the assistant pastor gripping hiz hat like the piano player wiping hiz brow & massaging hiz hand & the women were busy waking the children who were sleeping on the last pew their linen gloves hugging their little halves & bouncing them gently on their shoulders az they listened & amened & somewhere someone iz sifting sand on some sunny coast in some sunny land & smiles at the memories of little pentecostal churches

Romus © Copyright, 1999

sunday afternoon in the wide world in the whirling wonder of r laughter i spun u a thousand times held u upside down threw u on the bed tossed u into the air & u smiled u r crazy & wonderful sometimes sometimes so much energy & abandon like a little panting 4 action like a little boy delirious & fascinated with movement "come on" u say "bet u can't wrestle me down" & i look at u crouched & ready & tough & grinning i say "woman, will u stop?" but yo eyes r sparkling & yo chin iz high "come on girl, ...don't..." i say "iz there something wrong with u?" but u r u & that iz truth az u inch toward me low grinning ready & growling

Romus © Copyright, 1999

last night past the security of r bodies walking 2gether along the pier i waz with u r black bodies stringing an eloquent darkness along the coast

i said "look how calm the ocean iz out here when it raves at the shore but here here along its body it is calm kissable eazy" u said that u always felt the ocean & the land were in conflict fighting over who would rule the edge of the world the ocean 4ever surging a warning foaming an angry fist against the land the shore swallowing the water white sanded & hateful leaping unceremoniously forward

we were navy blue against the ocean blackness dark figures against the bright night sky we were alive overcome with songs az the early am's crowned u we were storms r beautiful lightning slicing the horizon in2 little afrikas & still songs danced in my head & still i waz a child following u in2 the ocean & infinity chanting poems through seasons az the night folded us in

but u turned to me in a moment of realness in a moment of sparkling darkness between the land & sea looking out at the far end of the pier hanging itself out over the night like a golden arm u said "romus, lets go all the way if only to say we've been there"

Romus © Copyright, 1999

with u love iz like water & in the early morning i drink deep my mouth wet with u & so i chant oceans in2 life

in the afternoon i tremble i am taken i fly here i am the quick electricity behind a long look at u

& sometimes when we eat i smile & u smile soft i recall last night & the simple truth we know private an exchange of heat

with u love iz like water & in the evening yr nakedness an offering a vast ocean & i swim i float i sing

Romus © Copyright, 1999

her hands were whithered such a young girl her cheekbones still high still a tall girl with her father's eyes & where she moves slightly she once danced & where she lays resting she once made love there iz nothing characters smiling dancing their prescribed fury their lines well written channel after channel the tv iz red with the world its pain a stage trick its laughter rehearsed anna sayz the world restricts her makes her feel az if she iz feeling alone like other's tears come crawling crocodiles that wait to be made in2 luggage like other folks failures r at best imagined & their deaths statistics in last year's census

anna sayz- when u have aids the world keeps spinning & it hates u yo company odorous yo presence undistinguished & i have aids that iz no secret now look at these hands these legs of mere bone thickness my hair thinning indian trails behind me & 2day iz so beautiful but i am not strong enough & imagine the sun hurting me my skin glove leather my eyes without color this morning i looked in the mirror 4 a long while & i did not cry my death comes with no face it sits around fingering the keepsakes & 2day there iz nothing on television & i ate this morning although it was a little i didn't want it but i know that i must eat & not vomit & it really doesn't matter i couldn't taste the food look remember this show? the good guys always won drew their guns fast & it never rained az they rode their sunsets while banjos drummed sharp dust & orchestras sailed crimson & gold i used to love this show & look remember this 1? the host waz always so serious whenever i would watch i would never laugh or grin maybe they were learning things in their intellectual silences things that laughing ran away oh, this 1 this isn't exactly it but wasn't she always so cunning so slick in a womanly sort of way she always got what she wanted & never looked back look here the news isn't the news always on somewhere? reporting what's happening & what may be happening or what may happen the other day they had a 15 minute segment on melons it was interesting however did u know that all melons are edible? i don't think that waz on this channel but all the news programs speak the same language in the same tone with the same distance i mean the heart of what is being said never reaches r bodies it seems that there iz nothing on television 2day-

anna sayz- my mother called the other day she doesn't call often i don't think she can handle this she haz no words 2 say no spells 2 rebuke my pain u see she's a church woman & i am sure she's prayed with all the mothers with daughters in the cities but i got worse so she calls & her silences speak 2 my childhood r memories common the disease gets in her way it iz 2 tall 4 her hands 2 wide its expanse to vast 2 look across she told me the people said hello the people from home who once braided my hair & smiled at my singing & i could barely talk that morning i waz so sick i tried 2 smile so she could see how i appreciated her call i held the phone close i whispered little things i waz so sick she said good bye i said the same & cried-

& the afternoon the open windows the city concrete 3 floors below us hustling its metals stepping off its corners here the room dark flowered cluttered this story hidden behind the old newspaper stacks anna iz dying alone & 1 can almost hear jazz turning its L's in the humming of old women

Romus © Copyright, 1999

when death comes & brings its 4ever night when u go beyond light in2 darkness at that moment let no man ask any questions or serenade the moon & may there be no shortage of countryside no storms billowing across june when death comes let no man say it came 2 soon let the stillness of yo room my brotha be ringed with the laughter of u crossing in strength yo stride unshackled yo burdens undone & whoever u meet in that great place let them know that if they don't start no trouble won't be none

Romus © Copyright, 1999

city like shadows gathering shadows sunlight creating a torrent of shattered windows the day collaborated against in structured coolness the skyscrapers spinning above u the indented blue inaccessible az the daylit universe afternoon in the blind quickness of a huge city motionless in an instinct hulled out of the brevity & intrusion of the churning crowds where the skin refuses 2 document touch & speech iz held behind the breath like a gun

& these afternoons come & go yet u are always alone here awaiting the doctors the cottons & grays & shadows marble & steel private fountains in civic courtyards silence & a glass door closing stand still where nothing stands stand in the muted half sunlight near the landscaping on the cool tile laid rock in the clean vision of a thousand windows stand beyond the reach of the recently wet and sleep bushes stand until the vast hum of the wide solitary day disappears in2 silence until light wells up around u like a holiness like a laughing afternoon unusually late & brilliant say nothing translate this moment do it with your mind hold out yr hands in2 the shimmering gold & blue of the eazy day fill yr lungs say nothing ... exhale... & when the doctors call u in from this courtyard where u almost wept where u were weak & stood in the stream of the languid afternoon secluded from war where yr spirit wandered like an ocean sent aloneness in a tall blue quiet where time waz long & sickness an island moving past windsails in calm clear currents when they call u in tell them that this healing waz yr own tell them that sickness nolonger makes yr days walk on tender legs & nolonger pools incense in the lungs tell them the heart nods yes 2 life take their hands tell them 2 sing with u tell them 2 sing with u

Romus © Copyright, 1999

we walk in the ruins of the mall the air iz in shock bulldozers shouldering through the walls all eerie open sky now desecrated carcasses of buildings defeated & catatonically tall roman gothic prophetic the floors ripped up 2 dirt like a frozen scream the heavy iron ball grinning the continual spinning of all r senses the disorientation & jive & electricity & dying

the sudden holes r bright sun greedy through every fracture i sense the end of the world traffic obliviously chases the hour the heavy trucks r lying & we ignore death sending stillness creeping across the shattered plaster we shore with all r language & the new space iz frightening like standing looking across a field of corpses turned 2 plastic the jagged chainlinked fences outlining r reaping the gangster bulldozers roughshod across the aisles & what we r keeping the palpitating horror in r chests the little loss of breath the death reverse gears of gravel trucks beeping their laughter in2 the bright afternoon the tragedy of junes losing malls insane machinery repeating orders recycling the land churning yesterday in2 sand a mechanical ogre with a hasty hand cheating each turn of the planet in mid day amid the traffic & business before night & emptiness oh, the weeping the moon will do when no buildings arch after the drug crazed caterpillars march

Romus © Copyright, 1999