Five Songs (for KS)
by William James
1.
Her voice is a black-lunged
miner gargling glass and gunpowder,
She uses the word “ignorant” incorrectly
without a trace of appreciation for the irony.
Her wedding dress was in camouflage.
The first day of buck season is a family holiday.
2.
In the back yard,
there's a pole with three flags.
Ole Glory,
the Stars & Bars,
and a Rainbow.
She added the third one
the day after her baby boy came home
from school with knuckledust
chiseled into his teeth,
and Rorschach tests bruised into his back
to re-brand him from football hero
to town faggot.
3.
Hovering just below the stink of petroleum,
a residue of bitterness in this town
bubbles like Drake's Folly earning its keep.
With no lynchin' tree to swing in town square,
some folks have a real hard time
figuring out who they should hate.
It's the only time they ever thank God
for the gays.
4.
The fiercest creature nature ever sees
is a mother bear in protector mode,
and Kathy, you
are full grown grizzly. The neighbors
with their double barreled buckshot mouths
don't scare you. The matchstick messages
sent to your front door can't make you run.
I'm glad you found your claws, though I
wish the cost was lower; no mother
should ever see what color her son bleeds.
5.
Kathy, please know that there are
such things as monsters. They
want you to live in fear; they say
a war is coming, and arm themselves
with picket signs and protests.
Fear and sickness have turned them mad
with hate. They claim the will of God
is that your son taste death, or at
least be sent to live in exile.
Etiquette would demand you let them
speak their peace. Maternal instinct drives
you to silence them with fists. Shake
it off. Their hatred and contempt are
only fragments of character, tiny imperfections
in the ore of human spirit. Stoke the fire in
your chest and raise your voice to a roar. With
enough heat and pressure, the flaws
of the human spirit can turn to gold.
Her voice is a black-lunged
miner gargling glass and gunpowder,
She uses the word “ignorant” incorrectly
without a trace of appreciation for the irony.
Her wedding dress was in camouflage.
The first day of buck season is a family holiday.
2.
In the back yard,
there's a pole with three flags.
Ole Glory,
the Stars & Bars,
and a Rainbow.
She added the third one
the day after her baby boy came home
from school with knuckledust
chiseled into his teeth,
and Rorschach tests bruised into his back
to re-brand him from football hero
to town faggot.
3.
Hovering just below the stink of petroleum,
a residue of bitterness in this town
bubbles like Drake's Folly earning its keep.
With no lynchin' tree to swing in town square,
some folks have a real hard time
figuring out who they should hate.
It's the only time they ever thank God
for the gays.
4.
The fiercest creature nature ever sees
is a mother bear in protector mode,
and Kathy, you
are full grown grizzly. The neighbors
with their double barreled buckshot mouths
don't scare you. The matchstick messages
sent to your front door can't make you run.
I'm glad you found your claws, though I
wish the cost was lower; no mother
should ever see what color her son bleeds.
5.
Kathy, please know that there are
such things as monsters. They
want you to live in fear; they say
a war is coming, and arm themselves
with picket signs and protests.
Fear and sickness have turned them mad
with hate. They claim the will of God
is that your son taste death, or at
least be sent to live in exile.
Etiquette would demand you let them
speak their peace. Maternal instinct drives
you to silence them with fists. Shake
it off. Their hatred and contempt are
only fragments of character, tiny imperfections
in the ore of human spirit. Stoke the fire in
your chest and raise your voice to a roar. With
enough heat and pressure, the flaws
of the human spirit can turn to gold.
An open mic veteran and member of the 2010 Steel City Slam team from Pittsburgh PA, William James has performed his poetry in venues all across the eastern half of the US, sharing the stage with both locally renowned music acts and a number of notable performance poets. In 2009, he appeared at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago - the birthplace of the poetry slam – as well as opening for a professional touring poetry ensemble, The Elephant Engine High Dive Revival. He considers this show to be one of the most profound moments of his life thus far.