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Fly Right
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Friday, 23 December 2005 10:51 |
#107
monk's dream
for tyree & karen guyton & sam Mackey
in the middle of the night
on the east side of detroit
off behind mack & gratiot,
on heidelberg street
where a lot of old houses
be burnt out
or just falling apart
& big weeds be growing up
where there used to be houses,
on heidelberg street
in the middle of the night
when the moon is high in the sky
& people be asleep in they beds
dreaming of new refrigerators
full of groceries for they babies
& maybe a new car outside,
or a number they can hit tomorrow,
put it in a box,
drag a bunch of boxes out
in the vacant lot across the street
& pile them up on top one another,
paint em all different colors,
hang a pink bicycle
up in a tree painted polka dot,
nail some old plastic doll bodies
& maybe some road signs
up on the front porch next door
where the people been gone so long
& stick in a telephone booth,
put a television on the porch roof
& plug it in,
change the channel once or twice,
a toy airplane in a bird cage
on the top of the house,
some plastic legs
sticking out the front window,
all different colors of paint
& objects of every description
stuck or nailed on somehow
all over the abandoned house,
sometimes a thing
just needs some stripes
says grandpop, 91, who can see
the things that maybe we can t
in the middle of the night,
like the doll in the attic window,
she's reaching out for help,
& the line of doors in the field
on the other side of the street,
they came from houses
that used to be here,
they came from old refrigerators
& wrecked taxicabs, they standing there
cocked every which way
& down on the corner of ellery
they got three big old vacant lots,
one got a raggedy boat in it
filled with junked tires,
one got a pile of oil drums
painted up in bright colors,
the other one got more doors
all lined up in a row
like tyree say,
there are so many openings
in life, you just have to pick
the right ones
the music comes up in the background
out of the little speaker
on the radio by the porch, it's thelonious
with charlie rouse, monk's dream
& the peoples indoors sleeping
turn over in they beds,
a smile on they faces,
they know in their dreams
it's just tyree & karen & grandpop out there
on heidelberg street
in the middle of the night
turning their neighborhood inside out
harmonie park, detroit
may 26, 1988
3.1.665 |
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