At night the blue light is released from air molecules
scattering like red and yellow brethren, on standby
after sunset duty, till the sun is ready again to be roomie's
red hair and sculpted waist, warming blood up to heat
of TV dinners fresh out microwaves set for two minutes,
cooking as if set for four, their paper plates now folded up
like a bad boyfriend huddled in corners cause he couldn't
handle what she bought with her, as she shuts the front door
on the world. Any tirade you're blessed to hear,
she's right about everything, no matter how hard
the horns stiffen as Devil's Advocate is played.
By the time she is done cursing out shadows, still
careful to leave out damaging material able to creep
under your uncut fingernails, or camouflage in curls
you never wash, you concede she is right about
every dumb bitch she goes off on.
Seen by the lesser as her invoking phoniness,
she's really practicing the very tolerance
you've come to compress all admiration
beyond friendship for. Can't call it brother
and sisterhood, but there's enough to say
she's that two liter soda bottle you regret starting
and finishing yourself, that time in the house
which could've been spent on streets like cops
on the beat, resume cocked, ready to investigate
all Help Wanted signs. Instead, you chose to look
out into the aerial azure, waiting for red to peep
through in twilight, or red to come through the door,
unknowing she is what particles un-cuff
for the day, blessing eyes with red hair
and spine with yellow consciousness,
slowing down true want's for friendship
un-savable when lost, as she brightens shadows
hiding in you till their shift in the sky begins.
Born in Camden, NJ, Sean Battle is the combination of an ambitious
mother and WWE Pay-Per Views. He is an MFA Graduate student for poetry
at Rutgers-Newark, and received his BA in English at Rutgers-New
Brunswick, where he was President and Open Mic Co-host of the Verbal
Mayhem Poetry Collective. Battle has released one chapbook, MID-CARDER
(self-published, 2011) and is working on a full-length poetry
collection. Poems have been published in nerissairving.com, Objet d
Art ,The College Journal, Borderline, Radius: Poetry from the Center
of the Edge, OVS Magazine, The Legendary, and the forthcoming
anthology Bop, Strut and Dance: a Post-Blues Form for New Generations,
and have been written and performed for the Raices Cultural Center
production, Spirit of the Drum: History and Evolution of a Caribbean
tradition. He lives in Voorhees, NJ. Learn more at
seanbattlepoetry.tumblr.com.
Nice work.
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