Friday, February 15, 2008

and staceyann chin is no joke

my electable parts

Huckabee
Romney

Clinton
McCain

Obama
Hillary

Mitt
and Mike

The names ring nursery like a rhyme

children's games
singing/rain/talking the same old/same old

are the ideas any different
the bodies/newer/shinier than Bush

everybody looks better than that neanderthal

next to him
I would look good for President

now that Hillary has put a little titty in the politics
I could run

Barack painted me skin and in
not too dark though

we still got troubles
wayyyy down south

the parts of me
Black and female wrestle inside

my body is split
right down the middle

my dyke self supports the world being ruled by a woman
the night/shades of me

wants little black boys to stop aping
hip hop
idols/with nothing to worship but records calling me

bitch
this bitch don't take that from nobody

and certainly not a man
looking to make his dick bigger
or harder

or whatever he thinking

if the lights are low enough
and the woman is fine

she can call me anything/anytime

but back to these elections
these fast talkers promising my black woman self

the world

they will give me
healthcare/mandated/housing/affordable

wonder what they will do
with their Black/female back pressed cruel
against some republican/special interest wall

wonder how tall they would stand then

winner takes all
delegates divvied up from light blue to dark blue

my father is Chinese
living in Jamaica

he proudly told me
he is republican

and I don't know what to do with that knowledge

not that it matters
he will never vote in America

the gulf will feed our arguments
give us something to speak of

when we speak
Obama will come up

he will knock at Hillary
and I will do my best

to act like it ain't nothing but normal

gay and Black
woman and immigrant

ain't nutten normal
about me and my split parts

torn as I am

never have I been this significant
in the United States

Black women walk invisible in supermarket aisles
nothing for my hair in the pharmacy

on your shelf
there is nothing for my mother's skin

and though I am glad you cannot sell me much

I resent
your ignorance

your disappearing of my parts

your constant silencing of me
unless you need me

for some voting block where you can again
divide the women
from the Blacks

the Latinos
from the rest of us

as long as we not rich and white
we can be separated from the pack of what is important

split
tear

sever
break

break my heart with this choice of which part of me

may reflect me from that place of power
which one

chose one
and my first choice was the white blond-dropout
talking all about poverty

but poor people
have never been the subject of any public conversation
unless they steal something

none that I listen to lately
in these times we need

direction
and maybe I should go to a Barack rally
hear him speak without a screen between us

how do you choose
from folks you ain't never seen

either way
parts of me may find themselves

Black
or woman

seated in the white house

history is in the making
people

I say
history is making itself known

and I am just as prone to write it down
tickled
that I am able to watch

and talk politics with my prodigal maybe father
and pontificate
and take a crap on the ideas that seem like shit

for now I am just listening
watching
late night TV in Chicago

and I am just here

watching the ancient dance of men and power
struggling to survive a woman

and a debonair man with my skin

In Chicago/in New York
I am listening America
Let me know when you've finally let me in


http://thedailyvoice.com/mt41/mt-tb.cgi/151

and if poetry isn't your thing...

elizabeth hines, at alternet.

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