before i die

 

 

 

Before I die I want to pray to God with that Mandingo

forcefulness that splits the firmament wide open;

that tears heaven a new a*s-hole. I want a heart

as big as diabetes, before I die,

with eyes so bariatric

they squint away the suffering

that tightens and drools.

 

I want a new liver before I die, not a cleansed one.

A brand new, out the box heart, not the one

you calm with talk and compromise. I want those

prehensile toes to wrap around, to hold onto

branch after icy branch,

 

the branches of heartache and caring,

the branches of days of drought, the days of no branches.

Before I die I want all the young poets who write each

morning about suicide and evil skies

 

 

to have a foreclosed house fall on them, have them

hang upside down, Mussolini in the Jew sun with the mortgage three

months due. Feet curled back like the dry, eastern

leaves of ephedras.

 

In the moments, right before and right after I die,

when the coroner leaves, when the fingerprints have been lifted,

I want to befriend the one who turns on the siren

the one who champions the sound of emergency,

the one who exclaims 'lets get this Negro to the hospital

before he turns on us',

 

before we bust a cap in his a*s for looking menacing.

In those moments right before I die

I want a real war declared on drugs,

a "Rich Mountain" war where the bad guys

split for the hills

and all the ones thats left, surrender. That war

 

where the heroin courier's use counterfeit currency and not

pretty young suburban girls with stashes in their bosoms.

Before I die I want everything relating to or existing in

times antedating written history

 

to be the subject of the next verse. Not a demand to recieve

satisfaction from another hieroglyph, not any emotional or behavioral  nonfunctioning.

Not someone you loved

and now you don't/

Reviews

[Shmoke-Sifted Heftlande..]

god damn, dana
you are hands down the best poet alive
I love the juxtaposition of 'diabetes' and 'bariatric'
I had to add your name, as you spell it, to the browser dictionary
that red squiggly line doesn't do you justice
can i admit that I lol'd at the third stanza?
idk if you were trying to funny, but I lol'd nonetheless
I mean i used to write my frustrated nonsense painful thoughts
in a fancy diary while I sat in the kitchen late at night
and listen to vinyls on my mom's record player
no one was around and none of it was worth showing anyone
and I remember listening to the french nuns
and lamenting the metaphors that got lost in my universal consciousness
like my eleven year old self that had yet to discover algebra or sex
I have a feeling I'll be in your time capsule in some manner
I see some of my Edgar Cayce-esque thoughts in this poem
every one of your poems is worth reading daily
the bulk of them should be required reading..it'd be a better world if that were the case
it would be a re-invention of the food pyramid for the mind
Chris Columbus, my a*s, I say

well, enough rambling..well done.

[Cool Handless Luke]

Man I don't even know where to begin with this one! So much power on one screen. Again, another piece that screams to be spoken and heard...

Before I die I want to pray to God with that Mandingo
forcefulness that splits the firmament wide open;
that tears heaven a new a*s-hole. I want a heart
as big as diabetes, before I die,
with eyes so bariatric
they squint away the suffering
that tightens and drools.

It's just masterful work Dana! This is stuff I could read all day long. It wasn't a great movie but Jay McInnery's "Bright Lights, Big City" shares this display of language and imagery that just calls to me. A thoroughly enjoyed read Dana!

[wunder]

~great-talk about a piece you can
read out loud-this excellent~!!!~

~"before we bust a cap in his a*s for looking menacing.
In those moments right before I die
I want a real war declared on drugs,
a "Rich Mountain" war where the bad guys
split for the hills
and all the ones thats left, surrender."~

[Clara]

Brilliant! I am so glad I stumbled upon your work.
Your writing is so refreshing and so different - love.

[Corset]

You are never going to die Dana. Gods do not die.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

a poetic bucket list of sorts...

you are the reincarnation of the Beats...

a trip back in time...

something i have added to my own bucket list.

nicely penned...graphically rich in insight and imagery.