dissolving here inside this soliloquy

there something else in here
much older than the rest
aloned
it barely whispered
through the plaque filled gaps
of tobacco yellowed teeth
and nothing is seldom said
there no clear thoughts now
left here in this head
just shadows
in syncopating motions
!i hollar
and it quickly rolled up
in tiny crumbed morsels
for making believe
lulling me on
wrapping voodoo charms
all around up inside
the muscles of my arms
making me tird
and my children
and they children they too
these hands
my hands!
they paddy-paddy cake patting
on the tom-tom drum
stuck here in the mud
on the potter’s wheel
spinning ‘round and ‘round
trying to get theyself
some-some
dark eyes they shining
they shining dulled
frozen wide in the midst
of thick africaned lips mumbled on
in us fingers
it in here caking
the clay that it baking
and more slowly it pouring on
in this moulding again

Copyright © 2003 Asili Ya Nadhiri