By Button Poetry
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Dave Harris, performing at Honey in Minneapolis, MN.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:02
I haven’t killed my father yet,
00:05
but I know love’s brutal blade.
00:07
Brown flesh turns yellow when it rots.
00:11
I nurture wrath like a mother.
00:13
Keep it calm, Baby’s teething.
00:16
I want him dead like history.
00:19
I heard long time ago, ancestors made drums
00:22
with their master’s skinned ribcage.
00:24
The hollow inside would echo like an endless mouth.
00:28
I can’t help but think of this.
00:31
I could make music of his dying,
00:33
could pass the instrument to my children,
00:36
the beat of the kill.
00:38
Revenge is a fine religion.
00:41
Good God, his faithful fist.
00:44
I’m a wicked son.
00:46
I got my mother’s stomach.
00:48
He must have said, “I’ll never do it again.
00:51
I swear, won’t even think about it.”
00:55
My mother doesn’t talk about him.
00:57
Silence– a simple forgiveness.
00:59
She screamed loudest when I told her I was looking for him,
01:03
said my eyes were familiar.
01:05
But I’m young, a better body of rage.
01:10
These days, my mother tries to plant flowers.
01:12
She says, “Just give it time.”
01:14
Patience– that’s one way to pray.
01:19
I have another.
01:21
I know he knows I’m coming.
01:24
I’m his son.
01:26
The day I was born, he fled,
01:29
I chased.
01:30
We both runnin’.
01:33
(audience) Wow!
01:34
(applause)
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This post was previously published on YouTube and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video