Get Michael’s book ALL EARTHLY BODIES here: https://bit.ly/AllEarthlyBodies
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5DH…
Do you love Button Poetry? We’d love your support:
https://bit.ly/ButtonMember
About Button:
Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
0:02
the night the owner of our second
0:03
favorite bar put 10 bucks into the
0:05
jukebox and let us play whatever we
0:07
wanted we just played prince and tom
0:09
petty
0:10
back to back
0:12
over and over
0:13
drank whiskey all night
0:15
wished for a reign loud enough to
0:17
distract from the fourth run of you
0:19
wreck me which was originally titled you
0:21
rock me until petty realized the title
0:24
sucked so he changed one sound and it
0:26
made all the difference tom pretty you
0:29
called him said you’d go gay for that
0:32
guy
0:33
and i said katie you’re a girl but you
0:35
insisted saying you would do really gay
0:38
stuff with him
0:40
and i knew then you were standing next
0:42
to him on the stage we carry around
0:44
within us like our dead dads
0:46
smoothing the strings of an electric
0:48
guitar really making him purr tom purdy
0:51
you called him your body swelling with
0:54
desire like your first acoustic in
0:56
summer the one you learned on until the
0:59
neighbor boy smashed it like in the
1:00
videos and you really slugged him for it
1:03
before running home to your dad who was
1:05
still there
1:06
then
1:08
and all this time i’ve been backstage
1:10
rummaging the fantasy
1:12
riding the jukeboxes repetition like a
1:15
ritual gyrating in my seat yeah i’m
1:18
giving prince a lap dance
1:21
his bandmates called him a fancy lesbian
1:24
and i’m one of his backup singers now he
1:26
says
1:27
he needs to test my vocal cords like
1:29
tuning a piano with his tongue and i’m
1:32
singing prance
1:33
prance which is how my spine feels
1:37
when
1:38
finally
1:39
the rain rolls in
1:40
loud as the speakers after buzz in our
1:43
heads pulling us back to this bar to
1:46
these bodies and i wonder
1:48
if our dads could go back and change one
1:51
sound they made in the ears of our
1:53
mothers
1:54
would you be that guitarist
1:56
would i be that singer
1:59
i don’t know
2:00
we both shake our heads more to one side
2:02
than the other as if to say nothing at
2:05
all but say it with grit and grace and
2:07
you order another round of whiskey and
2:09
we wait to see what song plays next
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
Escape the Act Like a Man Box | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men | Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race | The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com