A WHEELING DAY IN AND OUT OF STORES
Bicycle be ready for the child.
When it's not, my spokes come loose.
There's the barber's.
The shoe store. And groceries.
Away from home
in a parking lot without a book.
Cash at the barber's.
Could shop groceries.
Wearing sandals. The old blue Patagonia.
Note-book, No-Gate. Critical studies.
Rap songs from an unknown source.
Girl named Libby. Late for everything.
Before stores open.
Two
white girls.
I'll show you, man. Not deep travel.
Deep living. Deep living my ass.
Load the snapper in back of the Honda.
Fits with bars down. Noon on Saturday,
Buddy. Smitty's Small Engine always
closes noon on Saturday.
What I know. What I don't.
How I Work.
What I know. Lawn mower
going back and forth as I stop and go.
What my wife said.
What I told the barber.
You're no marine.
Crew cut, short. High and tight.
Take back the shoes.
Time Smitty's closes Saturday.
What noon looks like on the door handle.
Monday then. 8 am.
Banging around in back until Monday.
Leave the Mariner's at the end of 5.
Leave the Mariner's at the end of 5.
M's ahead 3-0. Leake pitching.
Seeger with a 2-run homer in 4th.
Beautiful lady. Beautiful lady.
Lovely, lovely lady that one.
Oh song in my heart.
Nobody reads books at the barber's.
Rising and sinking into true form.
What Now talking to What Next.
Talking with their hands.
He said it all didn't he?
Which one?
That old ship of Zion.
Running errands, listening to songs.
Those songs. Old enough to get one arrested,
Thomas Dorsey, your songs.
Sing me through my town.
Father of Black Gospel,
not Jimmy's brother.
Not the Dorsey brothers. Thomas A.
And all who follow will be dorseys.
Field singing for me. Bringing new,
to what had been. The
self, my self,
each other, appears.
I may be lost, but not subsumed.
Take my hand. My father's favorite.
Whispering piano playing.
Carrying a suitcase of rejected songs,
thrown out of some of the best churches in America.
Taking me through my town.
Peace in the Valley for Mahalia.
Texas Tommy. Georgia Tom. And me?
Spit shine and a three piece suit.
Soft enough to keep the police from hearing.
Lead me. Sing for Martin. Count the wheels.
Take off your shoes on the Holy ground.
Profane covering of the foot. These shoes.
Functioning at just-below our dreams.
Subliminal. Authority and power.
All that happens between men and women.
What boys want.
Red shoes. Two servants.
Approach to life. Changing roles.
Having come to terms with it all.
Shoe stores, Brother Thomas. Shoe stores.
Somebody say, Take back the shoes.
Somebody say, Bicycles.
Jim Bodeen
April 5-12, 2018
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