Ishmael Reed

35? I have been looking forward To you for many years now So much so that I feel you and I are old Friends and so on this day, 35 I propose a toast to Me and You 35? From this day on I swear before the bountiful Osiris that If I ever If I EVER Try to bring out the Best in folks again I Want somebody to take me Outside and kick me up and Down the sidewalk or Sit me in a corner with a Funnel on my head Make me as hard as a rock 35, like the fellow in The story about the Big one that got away Let me laugh my head off With Moby Dick as we reminisce About them suckers who went Down with the Pequod 35? I ain’t been mean enough Make me real real mean Mean as old Marie rolling her eyes Mean as the town Bessie sings about “Where all the birds sing bass” 35? Make me Tennessee mean Cobra mean Cuckoo mean Injun mean Dracula mean Beethovenian-brows mean Miles Davis mean Don’t-offer-assistance-when Quicksand-is-tugging-some-poor Dope-under-mean Pawnbroker mean Pharaoh mean That’s it, 35 Make me Pharaoh mean Mean as can be Mean as the dickens Meaner than mean When I walk down the street I want them to whisper There goes Mr. Mean “He’s double mean He even turned the skeletons In his closet out into The cold” And 35? Don’t let me trust anybody Over Reed but Just in case Put a tail on that Negro too February 22, 1973

put yr cup on my tray the stewardess said 40,000 feet up. (well i’ve never done it that way. what have i got to lose.) i climb into a cab & the woman driver is singing along with Frank Sinatra “how was your flight coming in?” (another one. these americans, only one thing on their minds).