Sunday, June 14, 2009

charmin charmin/but you are of no assistance

I've been rereading Ntozake Shange's "for colored girls..." and this is just one of many passages I'm absolutely in love with. Wish I could write poetry like this.

I think we've all been here before:

without any assistance or guidance from you
i have loved you assiduously for 8 months 2 wks & a day
i have been stood up four times
i've left 7 packages on yr doorstep
forty poems 2 plants & 3 handmade cards i left
town so i cd send to you have been no help to me
on my job
you call at 3:00 in the morning on weekdays
so i cd drive 27 1/2 miles across the bay before i go to work
charmin charmin
but you are of no assistance
i want you to know
this waz an experiment
to see how selfish i cd be
if i wd really carry on to snare a possible lover
if i waz capable of debasing myself for the love of another
if i cd stand not being wanted
when i wanted to be wanted
& i cannot
so with no further assistance & no guidance from you
i am endin this affair

this note is attached to a plant
i've been waterin since the day i met you
you may water it
yr damn self

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