VINYL POETRY

Volume 9, November 2013

BIRDIE
Amber AtiyaView Contributor’s Note

"the last dragon"

jump to movie theater scene:
sho’nuff
the shogun of harlem
tiger print cape
shoulder length wet
n wavy extensions
(oh flamboyant villain!)
makes an entrance
with his crew
interrupts bruce lee onscreen
hurtin up a white dude
challenges anyone
who wants him to sit down
and shut up.

what i’m gettin to is
the diva-blonde butch queen
in drag
red rib of stretch
polyester, boobs
a wee heavy
on the stuffing
who jumps up durin
the fight, screamin
(in her grown man voice)
jack ‘im up baby!
don’t hurt that face baby!

which brings me to this:
shonuff
warns bruce leroy
(the hero-heartthrob)
that he’s back on the scene
and i always wondered
where does a black man
come back from.

i asked my father
a black man
who said meditation practice.

i asked uncle junebug
busboy-turned-junkie
where does a black man
come back from.
he said vietnam.

uncle neville
said a knife fight
like the choreographed
rumble in west side story
with real beef
real blood
real motherfuckers
doing real time.

i asked my brother
a new jack israelite
where does a black man
come back from.
he said chillin with a girl
from the pink houses
neither pink nor houses
but projects
snappin up niggas
like sharks
stalkin schools of fish—
then fallin victim
to some white boy’s
need
to wear
their teeth.