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Callaloo 26.2 (2003) 285


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Fakir Floats Above Street Level

Douglas Kearney

I want to be the one who kneads
rainbows into motor oil stains
but I can't see past my smoke
when I can wash myself in yours
I'll give you beauty

*

upstairs       I sealed myself in plaster
ghost stories       ever heard of Antaeus?
I'm wrestling my smoke screen
searching for your callused strength
my feet never touched the street

*

who will turn my carpet to pavement?
my bookshelves are barricades       ladders
I'll put a mask on       a cigarette       go downstairs
I am a reed waiting for concrete to breathe
I'll give you beauty

*

can I sit on these stairs among you
and not be realized?
I read your faces like smoke signals
the street inches away       I twist
my shoes toward it like dowsing rods [End Page 285]



 

Douglas Kearney, a Cave Canem Fellow, is an MFA candidate at California Institute of the Arts. A graduate of Howard University, he was one of four poets commissioned to create a performance for an exhibition of Russian avant garde art at the Weisman Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was a featured performer at the 2002 Slam National Championships. He lives in Altadena, California.

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