crystal caressing
crystalling caressing
softlying willfulling wonderings
pulsing in splashing wanderings
languishing in pupils of our wanton eyes
hungerings visceralling spawnings
cadently stalking on here inside
hallowing halls hugging on to our longing
each one of us turning on into the other
there all together here nowing then
beholding with no fingers printing
Copyright © 2011 Asili Ya Nadhiri
crystalling caressing
our softlying willfulling wonderings
are noisy-ing visceralling wanderings
alone-ing here rehearsing a beholding
without fingers-printing
Copyright © 2011 Asili Ya Nadhiri
touching is
a longing alouding
of whispering soliloquies
softlying enfleshing
with no trespassing
a sensuous promising
gracefully consuming
nearly ever swallowing
a hungering caressing
wantingly entangling on
In a quantum/cosmological context, entangling is a most beautifully elegant and timeless concept
Copyright © 2010 Asili Ya Nadhiri
the soft and tortured yearning of the yardbird
(a song for Charlie “Bird” Parker)
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
i’m somewhere here
in this crowded dark room
alone in a corner
playing on the floor with broken things
my veins they fulling with nobody cares
spilling my days in a small pint jar
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
my sophistication is a syncopated thing
the stagger and swagger
they all mixed up together
in sweet round hips and homemade claims
lonely bellies sucking on voodoo bones
and sump’n tied here in me sanging
dat got no name
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
no time!NO TIME!no time there is in here with me
the trip is quick
a few words cussed in vacant lots
and sump’n waiting out here
i’m buried young at the end
of some other day
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
Copyright © 1995 Asili Ya Nadhiri
in the wake of what she never done
her children came added
one by one
muted notes rolled
from brown trumpet horns
promised dreams for her
that they always never born
the deathing of a african queen
her standing there by herself
in a long Africa gown
caressing in a hunger
swelling softly on inside her
in the kitchen sitting down
her done forgot
her keep going to dark men
who they pleasing in her
standing there on her knees
begging for they help
wishing for something in herself
that her scared it aint so
and this howcome her stomach all big
and all poke out again
her in the hall by herself
in a room full of people
her done asked would they come
talking ‘bout how her practicing
how her gone write down her name
her sitting here her close beside me
wrapping up in words
they not her own
her somewhere in the dark
squatting down in her arms
fingering there on the edge
of where the others they come
holding on to her children
they drowning one by one
alone in the memory
of what it never was done
Copyright © 1995 Asili Ya Nadhiri
Artea Mae Beamon
she been walking here
on the other side of the road
since way back when
can you still remember then
mumbling to herself
in those low enchanting humms
thick dusty braids they crown her head
with eyes looking there in the yonder
in old clothes that never fit just right
her long bony legs they bowed
by people they seen-ing her but never minding
her long melodic stride drumming here
in the squalor of splattered dark shadows
wallowing in the vomit of they drunken baptisms
mumbling to herself
in those low enchanting humms
and in the snare of a joke we poisoned her dead
burying all the words never did form on her lips
a moment’s reprise from our jealous despise
in the wake of her sordid demise
is all that she was ever given
mumbling to herself
in those low enchanting humms
and we go keeping on laughing trying to hide
from the festering guilt she bleeding here inside’us
with the strange haunting flaying of her eyes
and’us still standing around sitting
just like her seen’us here when
she coming along marching in a soldier’s splendor
dancing underneath her heavy load
that lightning stare daunting and cadently thrashing
scolding loudly in the silence of a mother’s care
at the swallowing enlarging of this numbing retarding
in which we all be always leaning on one another
just be leaning on one another here wait’n
and passing on all alone in her daily roam
mumbling to her self
in those low enchanting humms
Copyright (c) 1993 Asili Ya Nadhiri
the soft and tortured yearning of the yardbird
(a song for Bird)
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
i’m somewhere here
in this crowded dark room
alone in a corner
playing on the floor with broken things
my veins they fulling with nobody cares
spilling my days in a small pint jar
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
my sophistication is a syncopated thing
the stagger and swagger
they all mixed up together
in sweet round hips and homemade claims
lonely bellies sucking on voodoo bones
and sump’n tied here in me sanging
dat got no name
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
no time!NO TIME!no time there is in here with me
the trip is quick
a few words cussed in vacant lots
and sump’n waiting out here
i’m buried young at the end
of some other day
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
will you hear me wont’cha do wont’cha dooooo
Copyright © 1995 Asili Ya Nadhiri
dark mattering in this spacing of time
old man with your tin can
old man with your tin can
old man with your tin can
old man with your tin can
this feeling it rooted
it rooted all down here inside us
and it spreaded out wide
here’fore in everybody’s eyes
and them weeds from the seed that it feed
they growing callous and numb
wrapping up in the rags that us find
them that they sewd in here
by for us own abandoning mind
old man with your tin can
old man with your tin can
old man with your tin can
old man with your tin can
well us gone jes have to wait
for what it coming over yonder
‘cause here for us
there aint no other way
that my uncle willie he used to say
cropping ‘bacca everyday
he be snapping off the leaves
wit’his two big hands
and git’n into tomorrow
jes the best he can
say hambone hambone where you been
i been ‘round this world and i going again
hambone hambone now what you gone do
gone go one mo time so you can too
hambone hambone when this be done
just as soon as you give hambone some
i got me something here working
that ‘longs to nobody else
dont needs me nobody
but just me’n’myself
i can do anything
do anything what i choose
i dont need no drum
just need a new pair’a’shoes
i say hambone hambone what you gone be
hambone gone be who this is he
say hambone hambone what he this be
he be any somebody who aint this me
jes wanna!pull off! this shame
‘cause it too dark like me
this knappy headed somebody
who this i dont wanna be
so i cut up my face
‘cause it there on you
do thangs a whole lot worst
i done learned how to
trying to hide in here
away in here where the sorrow
so busy duckin in behind
this each’n’every day
that i got no time to care
‘bout what here coming in the ‘morrow
slow fire it burning here
inside this withering womb
slow fire it burning in here
here inside this withering womb
the smoke it clear ‘fore my eyes
and the stink coming from it
in its smell is consumed
slow fire it burning here
inside this withering womb
slow fire it burning in here
here inside this withering womb
the smoke it clear ‘fore my eyes
and the stink coming from it
in its smell is consumed
i seeing naked little boys
laying raped
here in the belly
of somebody’s jail
slow fire it burning in here
and little bitty girls
with dry baggy breasts
nursing from they babies
for so to feed they newborn
here inside this withering womb
i hearing the choking silence
of swallowing cries
and the dissipating bellowing
of lost kinship ties
the smoke it clear ‘fore my eyes
and the hungry droning
of fat green blow flies
and the stink coming from it
in its smell is consumed
reaching hands they begging
grabbing on from everywhere
and i still never warm
they caint none of’em hold me
‘cause they got no arms
so i just keep on rolling
on up on into myself
all alone here inside
pulling here
down here
over me
holding on to me
just holding on to me
holding on to me
Lord i just wont let me be
i keep holding on to me
just holding on to me
i keep holding on to me
Lord i just caint let me be
holding on to me
just holding on to me
holding on to me
’cause i’m holding on to me
holding on to me
just holding on to me
holding on to me
just ‘cause i’m holding on to me
so i just go on by me scheming
‘cause aint no use of me dreaming
here inside where it seeming
there’s nothing much more
than just to keep on seeming
holding on to me
just holding on to me
it like somebody’s in here
who this i aint who i be
apart of somebody else
i just caint tell who is me
so i stick out my arms
and grab what all that i see
holding on to me
just holding on to me
just oughta run away off
to where i too scared to go
but since i wont take a chance
i just gone stay here’n’dance
and keep on talking real fast
it make it all disappear
rhyming the ends
and making pretend
there aint nothing else
i much more better right here
and i dont care ‘bout what i doing
i strutt’n here for myself
got my my mouth mixing words
just like it all i got left
doom!DOOOOM!
DOOOM BA DOOM BA DOOOM DOOM
doom!DOOOOM!
DOOOM BA DOOM BA DOOOM DOOM
doom!DOOOOM!
DOOOM BA DOOM BA DOOOM DOOM
doom!DOOOOM!
DOOOM BA DOOM BA DOOOM DOOM
doom!DOOOOM!
DOOOM BA DOOM BA DOOOM DOOM
slow humping here in this sound
while i this somebody else
and this hole
still getting more deeper
it drinking all the water left
in them rivers it been said
that i’ve known
it right down here inside me
swallowing up
any light that i shown
the lord who that what i praise
in here standing here just like me
with they eyes closed looking
for just to see who they see
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
‘cause if i wont never let me seeee
who this i aint is all i ever be
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
‘cause if i wont never let me seeee
who this i aint is all i ever be
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
SHUPE SHO-BE-DO-BE-DO
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
SHO-BE-DO-BE-SHO-BE-DO-BE-DO
‘cause if i wont never let me seeee
who this i aint is all i ever be
DO-BE-DOOO-DO-BE-DO-BE-DO
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
SHUPE SHO-BE-DO-BE-DO
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
what this i doing to me
SHO-BE-DO-BE-SHO-BE-DO-BE-DO
‘cause if i wont never let me seeee
who this i aint is all i ever be
DO-BE-DOOO-DO-BE-DO-BE-DO
why wont i never seeeeeeeeeeee
Copyright © 1995 Asili Ya Nadhiri
aBsTrAcTiNg
DaLiStRaCtInG
dAliStRaCtInGs
(me don’t me want me be loved
want be me just me romance-inged)
*parramore-inged-ing
(like they aint no mo’ playing checkers no mo’)
ah ju’ah’ju’ah juuu ju Juuuuuuu
ah ju’ah ju juuu JUUUUUuuuuuu . . .
they dark faces wait’n ‘round
when they use’ta be stand’n dere lean’n here sit’n
stare-ing on inside veined browned yellowing eyes
who in dey heads black mans
who in dey heads jitterbugging
ah ju’ah’ju’ah juuu ju Juuuuuuu
ah ju’ah ju juuu JUUUUUuuuuuu . . .
why do you look on walking
so far-ring away here
full-ling with what
it farther-ring you on
in the cover you warming
but will not let you see
ah ju’ah’ju’ah juuu ju Juuuuuuu
ah ju’ah ju juuu JUUUUUuuuuuu . . .
arms on they alone-inged
playing on in they hugging
and all there is
is this all there is
ah ju’ah’ju’ah juuu ju Juuuuuuu
ah ju’ah ju juuu JUUUUUuuuuuu . . .
corners they porches
slowly there quickly no parking
strolling on in they standing there standing
waving out through they look’n
nodded they nodding on nodd’n avenues
ah ju’ah’ju’ah juuu ju Juuuuuuu
ah ju’ah ju juuu JUUUUUuuuuuu . . .
(voices in unison repeating the first verse as long as the feeling is there;
and then fade on out with the second verse)
still hear this sump’n in’me feel’n
jes’ caint i tell what it say
still hear this sump’n in’me feel’n
jes’ caint i tell what it say
still hear this sump’n in’me feel’n
jes’ caint i tell what it say
duh rhyme it fake’n me out
aint what be me this any way
still hear this sump’n in’me feel’n
jes’ caint i tell what it say
still hear this sump’n in’me feel’n
jes’ caint i tell what it say
still hear this sump’n in’me feel’n
jes’ caint i tell what it say
duh rhyme it fake’n me out
aint what be me this any way
aint what be me this any way
aint what be me this any way
aint what be me this any way
(fading on out)
ah ju’ah ju juuu JUUUUUuuuuuu . . .
*The heart-street of the oldest African American residential area in Orlando, Florida
Copyright © 2001 Asili Ya Nadhiri
A place for black pallbearers
the sun’s peeping in through thick damp air
smothering in the smell of burnt bacon fat
on dusty rows of little grey houses
and short narrow streets with no side walks
housing projects running colored shit brown
and four rusty chairs on root bare ground
all swirling down in there
‘round a old card table
mo people coming bid’em in bid’em in
pickled pig feet and cigarette butts
long low dipping strides n tiny bitty struts
on the way back to work and other such such
or driving by slow so’s to feeling mo good
wish they had the nerve just wish they could
never gone leave here trying they believe
this street it crowded a yellow bus stop
shade-eyed jacks with plastic little bags
tiny legs crossing over with no red flag
cars lined up big white sidewalls
long coon tails shiny red toenails
hand full of balls dress high up the thigh
swooning here dripping in another wet passage
talking table talk mumbling stumbling trying to feel
cut’da’cards’motherfucker’n’jes’gone’n’deal
Copyright © 1993 Asili Ya Nadhiri
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