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Bad Flowers and Graveyard Dirt<br />
(for Patti Smith)<br />
By Tanaka Mhishi<br />
Momma grew bad flowers<br />
outta her butt cheeks<br />
tak-a-tak rhythm<br />
running a train track<br />
though cotton panties.<br />
She found me in the street<br />
the way Albertine found her<br />
the way Jean Genet found her<br />
the whole bastard ancestry<br />
of rock star poets going back<br />
to God herself<br />
and now God is shucking oysters at the deli,<br />
watching sweat hiss down salt arms<br />
until it evaporates<br />
halfway to the ground.<br />
Momma I've got a belly full of poems<br />
and a demon on my back, and all<br />
the demons come with backups;<br />
show them a cruciform and they'll reboot.<br />
Momma they raped me by the station.<br />
Momma they chained me to the earth.<br />
Momma my body doesn't fit like it used to.<br />
and<br />
I went to sleep at night thinking I would die
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