Three Poems by Mike A.

Crack Instead of Oatmeal

Smoking crack
getting beat
life on the street

but wait
this is life
among the elite

yankee from maine
appearing SANE

enjoying boytoy
who smokes
and beats

tellin him
he ain't nothin
but white meat

reality IS
crack don't know color
or religion
nor sex
or orientation

So man got himself
first class ticket
to God's waiting room

gonna spend 30 days
doing rehab

yeah
but tonight
got to git
ONE more HIT

smoke crack pipe
MISTER

take another
them beatings

don't show me
the bruises
don't proceed
to tell me about IT

When finished with it
catch your flight

God is waiting for YOU
in that room

Afterwards
fly on back
to Yankee Land
near where
the Loyalists
still live

live life
as someone's Aunt

maybe those rocks
won't know
you really have
enjoyed them

or maybe
I won't see you
HERE
in the MORNING

'cause that man you
with tonight
yeah the one
who give you that
CRACK PIPE
done beat you
to DEATH
as you lie
screaming for more!

Just so you can get
ONE MORE HIT
ease your pain
that is all in your brain
and you insisting
he move that pain
to them bones

getting beat to feel
something crack
can't even heal

yeah
continue digging
that grave
you crave

sad, I feel
fed you some of my
oatmeal

still, off you went
still, off you went
still, off you went

LowDown

Lady told me
'bout her husband
said he wasn't downlow
BUT LOWDOWN

didn't live wrong life
LADY took care of her KIDS

watched husband DIE

memory exists
in her body

virus living
inside
changing genes
and replicating

friend told her
SHE must done
something WRONG
to get this

saw BLACK
skin of lady
turn crimson RED

heard words
never rebuke
only correction
to assumption

former friend
NOW
did not like
CORRECTION

see how VIRUS
affects us STILL

no meds can assist
with a social immune disorder
not even EDUCATION

dear lady
still affected
by LOW DOWN
dead husband

got it, now what

so
YOU
SSSS-ucked
DICK

now have
the VI-RIS

yeah
we know

You took it UP
the ARSE

don't confess
I'll agree
it's your mess

chose to forget
a HOODIE
heard MAN say
"I can't perform in the shade"

so you relented
LIKED his package

telling yourself
it was for him
wraps been known
to break

REALITY BITES
TRUTH telling
what IS

that night of
quick packing
was you
WANTING

to feel
HUMAN
again

wanted again
desired again

Oh HELL
YOU WANTed to BE
GANGed
BANGed

ain't saying
you sinned
You're NOT AL-PHA
NOT O-MEG-GA
in this dra-mma

others before YOU
more coming AFTER

VIRUS tricking
even those
NEVER PLAYING

no confessional closet
or hail marys to repeat

Who cares what they say,
if it was designed this way?
Theories abound
LOOK at FACTS

HOPEFULLY
YOU WILL REACT
POSITIVELY

since you are
NO LONGER
NEG-A-TIVE

STOP pretending
head NOT
out of SAND

answer the call
of your body's FALL

HEED selfish demands
get involved
in your healing

not a shaman
gonna KNOCK
on your door

better START
LIKING yourself

no need to
FEEL ASHAMED

STILL how
you finish the GAME

SEX been CHANGED

in order to adjust

TREAT YOURSELF NOW

In ways that
SAVE YOU

REACH OUT
and keep KNOCKING
until a BETTER door opens

it APPLIES
to all of US
I know
what I'm saying

LIFE still happens

whether I have it
You have it
another doesn't

It affects
ALL OF US