The noises are returning to my neighborhood
My hair touches my ears
And tickles the canal
The fruit in the bowl is warm
And radiates heat when I cut it
Did Benjamin Franklin own slaves?
The cars are back
The horns rise with the heat
The restaurants are on the sidewalks
And the waiters bang on a pan for each birthday
Yes, he had two...
My hair crawls deeper into my thoughts
My finger chases down the itch
The heat rises with the horns
The white devil bought this house I sweat in
Does the hyena win the game eating the dead?
He freed them, in the legal sense of the time, and became an abolitionist
I'm not going to cut it; I am resigned
I will do nothing but let my hair grow
Waiting for judgment day

__________


Long-time contributor James E.P. Bell published his first set of poems, Psychopharmilogicats, in The Avocado Papers in 2001. During the Covid pandemic, he has produced Kasper Zoom Theater, an online live puppet theater, with his wife, as part of the James & Rachel Fake Art Project. They have a YouTube channel with 25 subscribers.
Copyright © 2021 James Edgar Poague Bell. All rights reserved.