No North

(A poem sparked while walking the Chicago Loop as a messenger in the early 90s...)

ancestors came north to play the blues
instead of just livin' blue
but that's way back when;
now it's all day everyday generic motherf....
blues
and no north to run to,
but i tell myself, don't sweat it -
go easy, go cool,
slide big-shoulder style,
go walkabout through the back alleys
downtown
through the steaming entrails of the Loop,
smelling exhaust fumes and executive piss.
go past the empty suits
who've gained the world and lost their minds
lost their way in a maze of conformity.
remember the good old days, of
confusion
paranoia
easy slogans
cheap dope
and clear enemies?
i do...
try to forget the thousand shocks
that flesh is heir to -
neighborhoods in decline
lives in eclipse;
try to forget furtive days
spent running in circles.
yeah, go easy, go cool into the sunset,
go sanguine, go glacial.
hold tight to daydreams of red-hot summers
boardrooms city halls covered in ash
bathed in crimson,
postpone your personal homeboy armageddon
one more day
and walk that walk -
the cool jazz acid house acid rock stomp;
dance through the pervasive demonizing
coonman boogeyman slop
like Stagger Lee
dancing strutting through blood and bones
and broken glass
like a ghost dog in the machine
like a shark trying to breathe,
like a fuse      being moistened.
go easy, go cool on your appointed rounds;
long as you go forward
don't need to go north anymore.
go sanguine, go glacial.
stay sublime.

Reviews

[TTBoy28]

Remembering yesteryear and how to survive today. So many lessons you have exposed here, Larry, that should be inhaled by our youth today. "Postpone your personal homeboy armageddon...one more day"--Awesome! Reach higher!