Kef 21 – Henry Dumas

“First there was the earth in my mouth. It was there like a running stream, the July fever sweating the delirium of August, and the green buckling under the sun. The taste of sick dust ran in the currents of saliva which I heaved up and tried to picture when all the people would curse their own stinking guts and die. No. I am not wishing that everyone should die. Nor am I wishing that everyone should be still. Only I am squeezing out the steam in me.” – Kef 21, Henry Dumas

Thoery in the Flesh III

III

Some of my best poems
are silent.
Unwritten.
Unread.

Don’t only praise
production.

I didn’t write
that poem
on purpose.

I sat,
without my notebook,
no pen
intentionally.

Silence is acceptable.
Space has its time to shine.
A blank page
bright as the sun.

Praise
those poems
we don’t pen
on purpose.