Alysia Harris – Cab Rides and the Morning After [Video]

By Button Poetry

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Alysia Harris, performing for The Striver’s Row.

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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

00:04
i love
00:04
how all the constellations are named
00:07
after greek heroes
00:10
it reminds me that even though
00:13
mortals they have vices too
00:17
i love the dim
00:20
i love it around 5am when all the lights
00:24
dim after the sexy ones have become
00:26
middle-aged in their
00:28
12-hour life spans when the glitter
00:31
fades
00:32
and rests more like sad stars than gold
00:36
leaf
00:37
i love naked white sheets how they work
00:41
like
00:41
paint thinner to remove last night’s
00:43
fresco how they
00:45
dry you off after soaking in a tub of
00:48
room temperature lovers
00:50
i love the cab rides you take back into
00:52
yourself
00:53
away from the still beautiful people who
00:56
are all elsewhere doing
00:57
impossibly beautiful things when you
01:00
arrive home
01:02
you will greet the mirror like a
01:04
criminal in a lineup
01:06
with premeditated sins armed with brass
01:09
knuckles
01:10
and all the good intentions buried far
01:13
beneath the rap sheep
01:17
i plan to be a sinner tonight
01:21
could have been something else but
01:22
looked way too good in my red dress to
01:25
be anything
01:26
christian i was talking to three
01:28
different men
01:29
in five different languages i was
01:31
twisting a blunt straw into page 47 of
01:34
the kama sutra i was
01:36
dancing in an attempt to melt the belts
01:39
off
01:39
every man in the room but i heard the
01:41
truth that night
01:43
a turk speaking spanish didn’t know me
01:47
from
01:47
adam said to crea
01:51
you believe in god but you do bad things
01:55
suddenly i realized i was in a place
01:58
where all they play
01:59
is house music but can’t say i really
02:01
felt at home in the barely audible
02:04
barely recognizable zone between
02:06
having a good time and simply wasting it
02:09
i was a glutton
02:10
with a grin drinking warm gin knowing no
02:13
one’s name but somehow was everyone’s
02:15
friend i was standing in stilettos that
02:18
made me six feet tall but still felt
02:20
small
02:20
i was messing up the shoes i paid too
02:23
much for and still hurt to walk and talk
02:25
about conviction truth is nobody
02:27
believes me when i say i’m a virgin
02:30
truth is
02:33
truth is
02:43
truth is nobody believes me when i say
02:46
i’m a virgin
02:47
truth is the bible didn’t see the inside
02:50
of my face for a week while i was on
02:52
vacation
02:53
truth is i’m not innocent i’m just an
02:56
abstinent fireplace
02:57
it doesn’t want to feel the fire kindled
02:59
between her legs anymore so
03:02
so don’t mind the ashes they’re just
03:04
evidence of how brightly i can glow and
03:06
i want to glow hard like
03:07
like one dim star on an otherwise
03:09
starless knife that’s fine
03:11
just to prove its fidelity i know what
03:13
you must think of me
03:15
want hypocrisy but i don’t want to enter
03:17
prayer wreaking
03:18
of my addiction stinking of cologne i
03:21
don’t want god to smell another man on
03:23
me mistaking
03:24
menage on quad for the trinity thank god
03:32
[Applause]
03:35
so so thank god the stars don’t judge us
03:38
for what we do
03:39
beneath them thank god the stars don’t
03:42
see the evil we commit under their names
03:44
think
03:45
god for the silence for for the dimness
03:48
for
03:48
night spent alone thank god for friends
03:51
who know more than just your
03:52
boss trapping thank god for for cab
03:55
rides home because tonight
03:57
tonight i’m going to strip the spotlight
03:59
tonight
04:00
tonight i’m gonna turn off frank ocean
04:03
tonight
04:04
tonight i’m gonna take off the stilettos
04:07
i’m gonna take off the turquoise rings
04:10
i’m gonna take off the lip gloss and i’m
04:12
gonna sleep
04:13
naked not trying to be sexy just trying
04:15
to be
04:16
me a shaved a girl with a shaved head
04:18
and with eyes deep enough to stand in
04:21
with convictions
04:22
strong enough to stand on i’m finding
04:25
the mercy of god right where i’m
04:27
standing and it’s
04:29
it’s binding it’s blinding it’s it’s
04:32
forgiveness but most of all it’s
04:34
mine so so tonight i’m gonna i’m gonna
04:37
sit out on the fire escape eating an
04:39
apple and i’m gonna nickname the view
04:41
eden
04:42
and i’m gonna look up at those those
04:44
tragic stars with their pagan hearts
04:47
full of mourning and i’m gonna say what
04:50
a fall
04:51
but what light what impossible light
04:56
[Applause]

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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