Freudian slip

Letting the semi-conscious drive me

 

 

 

I’m drivin’ around

got the greenhouse effect goin’

I spy a light-skinned girl

ponytail, headband, loose clothes

seated

on the sidewalk, knees bent

arms extended

 

she’s cute

real cute

 

I want to love her

But what can I say

Are you gay?

And watch as she laughs that look that says

You’re too old, and I’m too straight

 

Her twenty-somethin’ looks

with my twenty-somethin’ ways

We could make it

in this land of today

 

I keep driving

 

I buy whatever smells good

eat what tastes good

grasp the hanging pot full of red geraniums

to keep my mother alive

 

Lime colored leaves

and lime colored what?!

On that van that looks like a Rose Bowl float

My eyes are full and searching

My ears hear and my nose smells

scents of pear and golden delicious sweet somethin's

 

Sandmans

Soul food Sundays

I feel like I’m in St. Louis

I feel like I’m home

and I’m lovin’ it

I spend time and gas to drive

to the NE side where it means something

to be greeted at Mickey D’s with a type of southern hospitality

and I’m lovin’ it

 

I wonder

as I eat my fish sandwich, fries

and sip on my Sprite

if it’s in the nature of a man who’s white

to love

a nurtured black girl like me?

 

I wonder

if anyone could appreciate this girl

who floats about in a Freudian slip

says “hello” to bumble bees

tells squirrels and birds to stay safe

and wants to save the planet?

 

I wonder

if I’ll ever be on the other side

of the white picket fence

and if I was, would I appreciate

the lime colored leaves?

Reviews

[Haden]

this was beautiful colette! the detail is tremendous. you bring the reader along for the whole piece. mostly, i like that it's so observational. a day in your life, your mind. not so frightening. really, you seem quite normal. so much prettier than lime colored leaves.

[Irin Chendale]

I have to say, I've got music playing in the back round and I could see someone singing this to the arrangement.

Nice work!