INVISIBLE BOY 3

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INVISIBLE BOY 3

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Midwestern Dinge

“when you have
lived invisible
as long as I have
you develop a
certain ingenuity”
—Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man

Midwestern dinge was—
Different than Southern dinge
You’re more on your own.

Down in the deep South—
Invisibility was
A way of Living.

Charles Bon knew it—
So did Colonel Sutpen and
His gay son Henry.

Quentin in Harvard—
All those years later with Shreve
Seancing the past.

Both of them knew it—
Quentin didn’t hate the South
He hated himself.

New Delta Review

“Though invisible,
I am in the great American
tradition of tinkers. call me
since I have a theory
and a concept a
“thinker-tinker.”
—Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man

I read books a lot—
I take long haiku-linked notes
Publish them online.

Blogossphere notebook—
New Delta Review satire
Kitschy déjà vu.

Kindle me, baby—
Down there in the Nook darkness
Fujitsu haiku.

Bad boy glob boyfriends—
Queering William Faulkner
Going Down on Moses.

So Black and Blue

“What did I do
to be so black
and blue?”
—Louis Armstrong,
What Did I Do to
Be so Black and Blue

The thing about weed—
It helps you to see music
Not just listen to it.

It illuminates darkness—
Our invisibility
And visa versa.

Music is seldom—
Seen except by musicians
Down in black & white

Armstrong has a way—
Making poetry outta
The invisible.

Armstrong’s unaware—
That he is invisible
Just like you & me.

Jazz Nodes

“my own grasp
of invisibility aids
me to understand
music.”
—Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man

So I smoke a joint—
Gives me a different
View of flowing time.

You’re ahead sometimes—
And then sometimes you’re behind
You’re aware of nodes.

Those points when time stops—
It stands still, then jumps forward
You slip into the breaks.

Then you look around—
That’s what happens when I hear
Louis Armstrong’s horn.

I simply step n—
Get inside the jazz moment
There’s a stunned surprise.

Unheard Sounds

“so with the spell of
reefer I discovered a
new analytical way of
listening to music”
—Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man

Unheard sounds come thru—
Each melodic line exists
Alone by itself.

Stands clear of the rest—
And you wait patiently
Other voices speak.

So that you end up—
Hearing not only in time
But in space as well.

You don’t enter it—
You descend into Dante’s
Dark depths way down there.

Beneath the tempo—
A slower tempo down there
You stop, look around.

Weltschmerz

“an old woman
singing a spiritual
as full of Weltschmerz
as flamenco”
—Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man

And down below that—
There’s a handsome dark youngman
Nude on a slave-block.

Standing in front of—
A group of white slave-owners
Bidding for his body.

He looks like Tyrone—
Tall, lanky & well-endowed
They want his dick too.

One of the buyers—
William Rufus De Vane
King wants Tyrone bad.

King’s the Senator—
From Alabama & soon
The Vice-President.