It’s Not Rita James
The heartbeat is still there
Flip-flop flip-flop
Not going anywhere
Bloodwork and fluorescent lights bring the red out
I’ll poke you again and again…
I’m lost in a lightness or facing my lack of sleep
No drug could occupy
I see through my window
Humans in zip ties
Flat green grass beneath them
Waiting for the sun
The bloodwork
Was this a mistake?
Seeing the glossy photographs
Nathaniel
Alfred
James
James
James
Can they see me through my window?
Not trying - hooked in - bleeding
Out?
Her name is a soul
Imagined in red paint on faces and hands
Breaking the needles so it can bleed on the green grass
Should I run out?
Or text my friends some distorted
Distanced
Detached picture?
I’m busy, but heartbroken
Can you believe this shit?
Yes
Will you accept me in a green field
Clear of bodies
Lit by the sun
Standing but short
Lined with words that signal a future you belong to?
Once isolated by political nothingness
Jobless
Giving blood for money?
I want to promise change for you
My window is a one-way revolution
Cornered bare walls
Soft jazz playing behind me
In this room, today, you’re not Rita James
somewhere else I guess you belong, but not to me.
(April 28th, 2024)