A Poetics


"WORDWORKERS
everyone

plugged
away

being taken

MEMORY

what's left
spend it
like there's no...

[sundriedflower lit by the math of
by the smiling mock
by the penury
of our predicament
called]

TOMORROW"

{ Rodrigo Toscano, Partisans, Oakland, CA: O Books, 1999 }


*


"So, what's the science now RZA?
Cutting they pockets like scissors
Send a fella, found him a Wally slipper
Slashing ends in the glass bins in Nevada
Flashing gems 8 and a half 10 state robber
All my life been in some foul shit
Besides, kid, that was child shit
Get on some foul and proud shit
G-ing many Koreans being all that I can be and
Put down on 30 keys and get to fleeing
Light up a tree and dope be breezing like a blow drier
Yo you's a liar like Jeremiah gaming on a flier
Yo my varying niggahs is carrying
Thug-drug marrying hit
And marrying all at the clarion
All my Spanish niggahs love us"

{ Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linxs, New York: RCA, 1995 }