A Lesson on Scatting Under the Influence
for Amy Winehouse
BY SHELELL FREEMAN
Wrap your lips around something dirty and homeless.
Give the song a warm bed, a soft pillow, an excuse
to dream of better lovers.
Strike marrow from the man in the last row,
don’t be easy when you hurl autumn at him, sing
the color of cracked leaves undressing branches,
cut hunger into the cicatrix of your throat,
take a sip of the guitarskin's splinter.
Remember what Nana says about girls like us,
we scoop half-empty beds from our stomachs,
curl up inside throbbing aftermornings with blind men
sniffing out the click in our heels. Remind me
what love does to a woman when its evening gown
ripples in the glass.
Don’t gargle these notes clean, just spit contralto
venom through that wide gap, Amy. Smother heaven.
Tangle the silence in your beehive bouffant,
tear the silk linens gathered around your breath,
when the smell of midnight thickens on the carpet
coalesce the words. Chase them. Until they scatter
out of your mouth.
BY SHELELL FREEMAN
Wrap your lips around something dirty and homeless.
Give the song a warm bed, a soft pillow, an excuse
to dream of better lovers.
Strike marrow from the man in the last row,
don’t be easy when you hurl autumn at him, sing
the color of cracked leaves undressing branches,
cut hunger into the cicatrix of your throat,
take a sip of the guitarskin's splinter.
Remember what Nana says about girls like us,
we scoop half-empty beds from our stomachs,
curl up inside throbbing aftermornings with blind men
sniffing out the click in our heels. Remind me
what love does to a woman when its evening gown
ripples in the glass.
Don’t gargle these notes clean, just spit contralto
venom through that wide gap, Amy. Smother heaven.
Tangle the silence in your beehive bouffant,
tear the silk linens gathered around your breath,
when the smell of midnight thickens on the carpet
coalesce the words. Chase them. Until they scatter
out of your mouth.
SHELELL FREEMAN has written and performed one act plays with the “S.T.A.N.D. (Students Taking a New Direction) Theatre Ensemble,” raising awareness for drug abuse, domestic violence, and safe sex practices. She was an Urban Word 2008 Finalist and ranked 20th in the world in the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She was also team captain of the Jacksonville Slam Team, which ranked 4th in the world at the Brave New Voices International Competition in 2009. Shelell was featured in the Knicks Poetry Slam Documentary as a finalist. She’s founder of the “Lady Poet Writing Collective” and is publishing her first book of poetry, Dead. Beat. Daughter.