Here I Throw Down My Heart

Playing the Dozens

82 Playing the Dozens my mama saw your mama hanging out clothes my mama socked your mama right dead in the nose —jump rope chant Gossip did her in talking bout her mama and your mama in a thin spittle strung like a bad bass between houses like something somebody had sworn off eating and even the crows waiting for whatever was wasted turned it down too and it drifted into alleys and back stoops into yesterday’s news and leftover bean soup into toilets that hadn’t been unplugged since who knows when and then came home like everyone said chickens would do came home and roosted in her bed and made such a stink that even the spin doctors couldn’t have put a spin on it [and Lord knows they’ve been practicing] couldn’t have done a thing even if the president had let them loose just 83 for the hell of it when she came out shaking what her mama gave her. ...