changing places

i never see nothing in here no how
so i don’t even bother ever looking
aint nothing in there
you can see it caint you see it!
from where you standing right here!
i have to go out ‘n’ bleed
or come in somewhere ‘n’ steal
just so i can feel sump’n real
to wrap up close here all around me here
i even go out ‘n’ find right here in my mind
those other things here
pretty things!
they there somewhere just looking at me
and wrap them here in other places
with hands shakin nervous i strutt’n bare
laughing i’m pretending no care
for those staring eyes passing on
arresting me there
in pale tanned they frozen faces
and the others they dark like me
standing there looking on
with the similar traces
and bring them back here on inside here
and all this time i’m already knowing
somethings they aint never gone ever be
just like they wont never was before
and sometimes i still be wondering
s’pose i look here inside here one day
and them pretty things i steal to feel
they wrapped for real and meant for me
and when i bring them in
on through that door
they gone be mine for ever more
and when again i be wondering . . .
i then again here
still always where
i always be’n

Copyright © 1993 Asili Ya Nadhiri