Reciting "Bumps" and "Ravens."

Bump

January 7, 1999

1. An Old Mother's Word

The smell of boiling pigs feet,

The serving of water cornbread,

Apple sauce for dessert, in a wooden bowl,

And the soft drink is red.

Eat it all, drink it all, and don't waste anything.

Then take a bath and take yourself to bed.

Get up in the morning and always do the do.

Put on your shoes and socks; your clothes too,

Slap a lil' water on your face, brush your teeth, smile.

Go to school and learn for a lil' while.

2. Lots

They've gathered all over, in the house.

Neighbors and friends of the family

Some big-mouthed and gossipy.

Wannabes who wouldn't know their own identity,

Others are quiet, but all hoping to 'bum' a meal.

Whatever happened to the 'cup-of-sugar' days?

Bold habits live fast and totally free.

No, they would wish and beg for credit.

Feed 'em anyhow, and payment? Forget it.

3. Photographs

These are the days when privacy is empty

Stop and pose for a camera.

What one does at the moment really doesn't matter.

Snap: a teenage boy is biting his toenails.

Click: a ninety year old man's diaper dropped.

Snap: a woman's dress is caught in the wind a notch.

Click: a football jock slowly adjusts his crotch.

Finger in a nostril, a sloppy kiss.

Gamblers at the black jack table with trump cards,

Or the old lady tossing leftovers in her own backyard.

© 1999 Jarrod C. Lacy

******

Ravens

March 9, 1999

We'll go far from a standard peck and a caw, then easily brush aside

any cornfed crow.

They laugh at us because they covet us, and perhaps they're

ashamed of their turkey's feet.

Farmer's field is a hiding place where they're wreaked under the coverage

of conceit.

We're the brothers and sisters that possess the formality of grandeur.

We know the flavor of the seed. They crave this.

Our pedantic lunch we seem to vomit on a plate of prejudice;

There is their gloss that doesn't mirror a relic glam of an eternal royal.

Smaller in form, feat and feature are tips of their eclipse that horns

little music for our popularity as an employer.

© 1999 Jarrod C. Lacy