{"id":65026,"date":"2015-10-30T16:09:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T16:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=65026"},"modified":"2015-10-30T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T16:10:18","slug":"two-poems-2015","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=65026","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As For Dancing, 4 July 1978<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014thank you;<\/p>\n

Thank you for fullness and hunger and sharing them both
\nlike the silky dress I borrowed from Tawanda;
\nand for the day off tomorrow;<\/p>\n

Afro sheen and spider lashes, his printed salute, at ease, in white jeans
\nand every lyric the Emotions belted
\njust before the lights came on; for sweat;
\nand for the letter from home that said, \u201cI miss you,\u201d and then,
\n\u201cI\u2019m waiting for the bus;\u201d
\nfor the sense to know waiting is not where it\u2019s at;<\/p>\n

for guests too full of chicken to walk the grounds
\nand who can only hear the sound
\nof the children at play; because I get to see them play;<\/p>\n

and for those beautiful birds too
\nwhose calls made me duck at first because I saw The Birds<\/em>
\nand there are no phone booths here;<\/p>\n

for taro on my toes and the work of want; for knowing how to do both;
\nand peanut butter fudge\u2014sometimes\u2014and tic-tac-toe with Tawanda,
\nbeating her and laughing long after we should still be laughing<\/p>\n

because it disturbs the others; and for Earth, Wind, and Fire;
\nbecause there is nothing better than a horn section\u2019s fingertips
\ntwisting my hips under a night sky\u2019s strobes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nI Learn To Love The Body She Loves, 28 September 1977<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

If I found my Bible
\nwhat would I do with it
\nNever did much more than
\ntack the pieces together
\nand my permanent fix blew,
\npixie dust without a fairytale,
\nto pretty; its cloud sparkly.<\/p>\n

I liked to get high
\nfor that kind of reason
\nthousand little neurons
\nbuzzing in my brain so
\norderly the hum
\nwas its own silence.
\nThe devil you know is
\nbetter than the one
\nyou don\u2019t. I take 2
\nand in the morning
\ntrouble the shower
\njust the same pretending
\nnot to see the thick
\nscar tissue, a jagged mountain range
\ntumbling into the ravine of her crack.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(\u201cAs For Dancing\u201d was originally published in Quiddity, Spring\/Summer 2013, Volume 6.1, and is reprinted with permission.<\/em> \u201cI Learn To Love The Body She Loves\u201d was originally published by Connotation Press, April 2013<\/em>, and is reprinted with permission.)<\/em><\/p>\n

(Poet darlene anita scott is a regular contributor to <\/em>the jonestown report. Her complete collection of writings and poetry for this site may be found <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. She can be reached at <\/em>darleneanitascott@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As For Dancing, 4 July 1978 \u2014thank you; Thank you for fullness and hunger and sharing them both like the silky dress I borrowed from Tawanda; and for the day off tomorrow; Afro sheen and spider lashes, his printed salute, at ease, in white jeans and every lyric the Emotions belted just before the lights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":64525,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65026","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65026"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65028,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65026\/revisions\/65028"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}