*splashing water coloringed

they spreadinged and swallowinged on
in this low droning stare
of who this who in here
who for they selfing
purpled grey splotchings aloninged
wrinkling and drying on out on one another
growinged hard too soon

welfaringed moments
they chanting and caressing us all
bleeding on through the veils
of invisibled-ling faces
running on out here
all over us all

they spreadinged and swallowinged on
in this low droning stare
of who this who in here
who for they selfing
purpled grey splotchings aloninged
wrinkling and drying on out on one another
growinged hard too soon

*A small child of perhaps 7-8years, I remember how the water colors created in my watercoloring paint kit always ran all over the paper, saturated and wrinkled it uncontrollably.

Copyright © 2003 Asili Ya Nadhiri

delta brown 

is the warm wallowing taste
of sugar brown thighs
and the undulating rhythm
of plump bouncing things
nursed in the harmony
of dark alluvial soil
as ragings and sagings
of crippled and swaggering forms
and the rustling and rippling
of tender bitty poems
are suckled in quiet maternal tremors
into reverend and salvatory hummms

Copyright © 1993 Asili Ya Nadhiri

and while felling tears they never falling
(please dont make’me let’you see me
just letting my self here just disappearing)

my skin is whispering
‘cross the moistening reflection in my eyes
the soft gentle sway of my ways
the motion it betraying me
my words they rolling me up
inside all over myself
the hands i try to hold
wont hold mine instead
the mirrors are scared
of what they might have to show
and i’m always never looking
am going on never looking
and never looking
any more

Copyright © 2002 Asili Ya Nadhiri

en-wish-en

wove-ing softly in close up underneath
the blued maternaled dripping
of your longed dark nippled breasts
*“-syl-la-bate’n-at-that-
-this-you-some-body-other-self-!” . . .
mumbling on through them soliloquies born
‘fore in ‘cross that passage on
and then on and on      and on and on
and now on through you

in naked scared    unguarded   moments
longing  for where you wandering
in brown trespassing eyes
with thick  laden hands
too fulled to behold . . .-ding
your long praying fingers en-palming
them done      forbidden things      there warming
in amen amen en-tangling

waiting there stirring in syrup brown sugar ways
who they aint never caint never turned cold
you holding on to there to you holding on
pretending in sometimes ‘hind Sapphire-ing wigs
in a dimming purpled dimmed en-swallowing
your dark plum lips impounding your bosom
in hushed protesting vows
on and on   O Lord   and on and on
in this      as you is been

*This is one way (especially among African American women)“that you are letting somebody (and the audience always in attendance) know that you are getting them “told-off absolutely” by accentuating each and every syllable of your diatribe (a performance involving a myriad of facial contortions, eye rollings, finger waving at “in your face proximity,”  and lips smacking).

Copyright © 2003 Asili Ya Nadhiri

BESIEGING

this here it crowding in on me
wrapping ‘round me so !tight!
locking me up inside
on inside this night
and there aint nothing else
that i feel like chancing
everything it played LOUD
for so i go on dancing
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
they is nobody
i in here all alone
fingering the echo of words
try’n’ta come through the lips
of us brown trumpet horns
who dont we never let me find
what they right here in my mind
them ones who in here
they like us but aint bound
by this line i here behind
the one us drawing in the dirt
right here on the ground
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!
ah BOOJU ahh na na !UH!

Copyright © 1995 Asili Ya Nadhiri

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

enfolding who
that in all us what

gathered dark hands gathering here
drinking beer in they cans
by the edge of a woods
held holding on
to holding on to up close
in all around each one another
looking back up the street
at they young legs bowed
in the slow thumping sound
of some bass humping down
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
posing there runnin ‘round
runnin ‘round all around
all around one another
sucking on the titty
of being back here out there
in the morning
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
big damp eyes
damp eyes damp eyes
they emptying on
in little tiny bare legs
who they fosteringed home
and they turninged cold
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM

Copyright © 2003 Asili Ya Nadhiri

DIS-FUNCTIONING-D
(us all mirroring-d here
just like we being this here somebody)

sown deep in my hands
whom i is supposed
this what whom i is-inged
bending down over me
swirling around in between
the pale dark toes

disguising disguises
walking is is i pleased
i is is i is!
hold out in my hand
come back i this same
is i is is i is

so loud inside
inside it so loud
the sound it drowns
the sound that drowns
the who that found leaving
from where it in here behind
the who in us whom
this echo impounds
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM
DE DOMP DOMP DOOOOM DE DOMP DOOOOM

Copyright © 2003 Asili Ya Nadhiri

slick hands 

coming one right after another and the others
with talking fingers dancing on little hands tan
pimping sweet words pickled in rusty tin cans
to us here hungry and begging to feel real
coming by ourselves in dark and lonely halls

on brown thighs
we’re always rubbing and trying to finger
sucking their dreams to nurse our schemes
preying on the soft warm ground
of those who look like us

or else we’re standing there
waving in pulpits and long elected halls
promising holy destinations and brown bellies full
stroking with fat hands and brick-veneered things
dreams of kingdom come and another day’s done

or writing big words brown round like turds
on homemade papyrus and scrolls
tracing pictures from ancient and hallowed halls
or shadows from drum soaked walls in ghetto stalls
shuffling three shells and reams of hypnotic dreams

coming one right after another and the others
with talking fingers dancing on little hands tan
pimping sweet words pickled in rusty tin cans
to us here hungry and begging to feel real
coming by ourselves in dark and lonely halls

Copyright © 1989 Asili Ya Nadhiri

shaking in our own booty shaking
(so making this all seeming warming
as we’re spinning to conceal )

now we’re here surrendering
surrendering on in this when
and us screaming so loudly
we aint even hearing
us here surrendering then

blatantly we’re wantonly raping ourselves
ensconcing in colding puppeteering arms
of our public auctionationing ‘jaculations
!so howcome it is we aint come-ing!

and we keeping on pretending
like as we’re all   we’re just pretendings
at being what we’re pretending
that we ain’t wanting
this what’us wanna gone be
wallowing over and over
in this darkening light
of brass mas-tur-ra-bationing mimes
in line behind our own hypnotic rimes
so making just like “it aint so really so”
how we’re all swallowing swallowings
of our own mis-er-rationings of us

Copyright © 2010 Asili Ya Nadhiri