writing and listening ....always

control f.r.e.a.q. ( somewhat a poem but maybe not)


control f.r.e.a.q.

for alice coltrance/ e. badu/ and q-tip

after TRACE on a Saturday Nite

(because all poems are found poems)

1.

this is your brain

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON BADU

2.

"...transition with a real slow fade..."

3.

this is a jazz poem

because linear though just

like linear movement is boring

4.

this is a jazz poem because

assata speaks across the oceans to me

her glance and foot steps reminding

me to "embrace myself"

and "love my body"

6.

this poem is a jazz poem because jazz

is a recipe for spring time sex

before the skin is scented

summer sweat or stretched by a lovers moan

5.

jazz is a recipe

like this

2. limes

4 large chunnks of pineapple

4 small cubes of ginger

juiced

sipped against the sun

8.

this poem is a jazz poem

because jazz is funk’s mama

and hip hop’s grandmama

and is the illegitimate daughter of the blues

7.

this poem is a jazz poem

not a stump speech or a letter

or an essay or protest novel

or a semi-autobiographic creative non-fiction narrative

or an elegy or an abstract surrealist experimental formalist literary work

9.

damn....q-tipislookinggoodashellicantwaittohearhisnewshit

10.

i told yall

this is a jazz poem because

three nites ago the chill broke

like my first boyfirends gold chain



this is a jazz poem cause jazz is rebirth

like an orange moon squatting low over central park wanting lullabye

11.

"and if you think about turning back i got the shotgun for yo back"

12.

this is a jazz poem

cause "lawd knows i’m tryin"

and slipping

and sinning

and singing

and running

and resting

and running

again the record skips and i dip to find the right key



12.1

this poem is a jazz poem

because the head nod is an ancestral gesture of communal

affliation and no you ain’t supposed to get the beat