Saturday, April 2, 2011

POETRY MONTH FEATURED POET: TAMMY MELODY GOMEZ

(Tammy Gomez, photos from [1] her website and [2] by Michael Nye)

Today’s poem you oughta know about if you don’t already comes from the amazingly prolific blender of arts and politics, Tammy Melody Gomez. We used to be KO.OP radio and WATER sisters, as well as poets on the Austin beat. Tammy energizes the muse in others as much as she creates her own, which is an incredible feat. Her website is at http://www.hyperweb.com/tammyg/gomez.html

MANSLAUGHTER

I heard it was homicide
on the homey side of town
(that's East Austin to you). But look around, it doesn't
really sound so implausible:
3 ingredients made it all possible:
you got a stereo, you got a woman, you got a fist?
Burt had all 3 and found a reason to
get pissed.

I heard it was manslaughter;
man's laughter in the distance:
"Huummmppphh--one less bitch in my life,
one more stat on the files."

I read how Burt made her hurt
multiple blows on multiple nights,
Her quote said, "I don't know how many times my head
flew from left to right, and right to left, and left to right.
But she finally used a knife on his face,
'cause it was either fight or flight, hit or run, strike or cower;
she rose up & showed him her self-defending power. (Not enough.)

Cause I heard it was manslaughter
man's laughter in the distance:
"Huummmppphh--one less bitch in my life,
one more stat on the files."

And, y'know she didn't call the police department
cuz she thought they'd drag her out the apartment and
carry her off to jail for putting off putting in
the mail the cash for her outstanding traffic tickets.

And the Austin American states that "Burt's a villain"
but some believe she triggered the killing,cuz a
good girl doesn't get all uptight, raisin' fists
to fight. But hell, both were doomed to lose; neither of them are white (shit!).

I heard it was manslaughter
man's laughter in the distance:
"Huummmppphh-one less bitch in my life,
one more stat on the files."

(And I believe) it was history that subdued this woman into silence:
We know how rarely cops will give protection from the violence--against Black victims
She was Black and so she flinched, thinking maybe she'd get lynched--in trouble for a lesser
crime,
she thought she'd have to do a little time,
even as Burt beat and beat and beat her.
Better that her man than the cops mistreat her (Right..?)

I heard it was manslaughter
man's laughter in the distance:
"Huummmppphh-one less bitch in my life,
one more stat on the files."


Tammy M. Gomez
Spring 1993

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Friday, April 1, 2011

POETRY MONTH FEATURED POET: DODICI AZPADU


In honor of Poetry Month, I will be posting great poetry that is hard to find elsewhere. I begin with work by Dodici Azpadu, whose novel Saturday Night In The Time Of Life is one of my lesbian favorites. Dodici and I were once in the same poetry editorial collective for Common Lives Lesbian Lives, and I learned a great deal from her. Her website is https://www.dodici-azpadu.com/



When Generally
Assisted I lived
on 14th Street
with the used
cars and freeway noise

I exchanged
my shirt each
morning at 1:00 or 2:00 p.m.
in the Purple Heart Store

Gathering transfers
along Mission Street

I stopped where
one food stamp bought
enough burrito
to last all day

I walked 16th
Street eating and
if I could stand
the glare at Cafe

Flore where admission
for watching the afternoon
traffic was a re-fill
in someone's left

over coffee I sat

Occasionally friends
in a borrowed wreck
took
me to play sports
(I yawned from

bad nutrition between
spurts of running
hard) but
I slept well
those nights if
the shower ran
hot

I liked the darkness

most nights I walked
to tire myself looking
in the stores on
Mission Market Castro
or Polk
Friday and Saturday nights
I went to a bar dense
with women though

I carried depression everywhere
like a medicine
to control seizures
of clarity Sometimes

I tapped my foot


by Dodici Azpadu

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Monday, March 28, 2011

LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP 29 MARCH 2011

Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there.


















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