A Short, Colorful, Riot Poem for Lee Merrill Byrd

Paul & Lee in Memphis 1967....photo by Bobby Byrd

A SHORT, COLORFUL, RIOT POEM FOR LEE MERRILL BYRD

Blue
Bottles are blue, green
Glass is green .
The West tastes like the North
The South tastes like blood and shit
and magnolia .
I think I can stand it

It is the strength in the arms
you feel
if you lift it


Europe even worse than the States
the price of Kleenex, boucliersand tear gas
paving stores and fire
the same clubs

Cream no longer rises to the top, the
perfection of the centrifuge .
A brown unglazed jar.
The flowers are white
with centers green and yella
how you, fella . the stone
and broken fingernails, it
is the strength you feel
back and arms
when you lift it, mes coopains

IF you lift it .
The blottolub,

the cremaris.


Paul Blackburn