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Come on Out to the Porch on Friday. Features are wordsmith and Spoken Word exemplar 13 of Nazareth and What-can’t-a-sista-do?, emceeing/poet/bass-playin, singin J Scales. And sure…. I’ll do a lil somethin, somethin too. Open mic from 8:15 - 9:15. Get there early in order to sign up.  

(for shawty)

ripped down bedroom-warning:
“fragile:
handle with care.”
no one dreams in here
but me
hearing voices of ghosts past:
“fuck hard,
stay soft enough to fall into”

and everytime
I look at the leather left
that i’ve only worn as dress-up
I think:
what a fragile fucker
preferring cuddles
over slings
a wedding over a whip
and perhaps
I will someday
have them both
embody this oxymoron,
this rough pleasure
I offer to everyone
but myself

i think
maybe only I
can love me best
hurt me better
than anyone else
be my own best daddy
and prodigal son
be master to this slave
who longs so for love
i may choke
on my last breath
pleading for it

maybe i’ll grow numb
from teasing
this dialectic
i’ve never found in a complement
turn to mirrors
and see a brown, stocky
cruxifix nigga
blow him a kiss
and with the most crude
thug baritone
I can quiet…
whisper to him
in this room
where no one dreams
but me:
“hardened:
handle with care.”