you wrong
By Marvin White (’00,’01)

And you know you wrong
Rollin’ up in here like this the last place you wanna be
Like this the last stop
End of the line
Some train yard
You
Comin’ up in here liquor convinced
that puttin’ that breath melted tongue
all up in my ear
Baby babyin’ me
You gon’ put that ole rusty quarter up in my jukebox
Nigga you crazy
You think my underwear just start shimmyin’ for your dark ass
Cuz now you ready to dance wit me
and this is where you take me
when I ask you
No – beg you to take me out
You call this a ballroom
     Say ain’t it hot like sweets downtown
     Say ain’t it crowded like jimmies on Friday’s
     Say ain’t it lit like the starlight
     Say the lennox lounge
     Say your fast cousin bessie lee’s sticky basement
     Say baby don’t you love that ceilings couvosier moon

And your bustin’ through window fist
Brushin’ my cheek and carry the weight of the world knot in your shoulders
My wrappin’ arms barely reach and my backs small enough
Big enough for your days hard worked callused hands supportin’ dips
My taken breath giggles into before we end up back in bed
Forgettin’ my prayers again
Forgettin’ you always lead
Forgettin’ you wrong
and
You know you wrong




Copyright © Marvin K. White. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the author.

photo

Marvin K. White, author of Nothin’ Ugly Fly and the Lambda Literary Award nominated Last Rights, is a poet, performer, playwright, visual artist as well as a community arts organizer. His poetry has been anthologized in The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets, My Brothers Keeper, Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Writing, Things Shaped in Passing, Sojourner: Writing in the age of AIDS as well as other local and national publications. A former member of the critically acclaimed Pomo-Afro-Homos, he has led creative arts and writing workshops from inner city elementary schools to youth centers for runaway kids to black gay youth support groups. He is co-founder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), an arts organization whose goal is to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions. Marvin has just successfully mounted his first play For Colored Boys... in San Francisco.


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