Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that’s true!
—Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
8 billion bodies
all collected
life is never
what’s expected
tell yourself
you’re not affected
but everything
is all connected
green and blue
it’s all we got
this lovely living
spinning spot
all condemned to
live the thought—
stuck together
like it or not
have you ever noticed steamed carrots?
they almost stun you into another dimension
and they taste so good
and they come right out of the ground
I wonder if Father Hopkins
ever wrote about steamed carrots
So it is in life—from sun, to moon, to earth, to night, to day, to you getting up in the morning and going out to play a game of ball. All the rhythms of life are in some way related, one to another.
—Langston Hughes, The First Book of Rhythm
That basketball was like a basketball to me.
—Basketball Jones
I toss it in the air
And sometimes it goes in
I share it with my friends
And get it back again
Shooting hoops alone
I’m never in a hurry
It’s easy to be me
Pretending I’m Steph Curry
Playing all day long
Till every muscle hurts
Pounding on the asphalt
Till we’re covered up in dirt
If I was you I’d grow out my hair And tuck my shirt In my underwear
If I was you I’d get me a tan I’d drive a red truck And drink like a man
If I was you I’d get a good job Stop dressing like a fool And looking like a slob
Stop acting stupid Making up your rhyme Get outta bed early Chew thirty-seven times you say a lot more than you ever really do who ever said that i wanna be you?