dear norm,
i'm a reasonable guy,
i didn’t buy those
phony stories about sleepers
reading "a catcher in the rye"
read it myself as a boy
never finding any conflict
with my joy in songs of lennon,
songs of free- ... markets
but i am literate
i have read your
basic poems and histories
i have heard your blues
and when children come in
my supermarket and
buy up all the sudafed
and cold medicine
all the safflower seeds
and energy drinks with
extreme taurine
using credit cards i would
not, normally
be suspicious -- slogans
on containers is my
business -- but i saw
those children all carry
books of langston
hughes poetry and
some mention the phrase:
the harlem project,
a place i think, they say too
casual like code for secret
and some flash
furtive finger signs and others
answer while the line
awaits authorization
for the cold remedies
and i got to wondering what
does happen to a dream
deferred? does it explode
like the poet wrote?
if not, norm: this chill spine
is why i write -
if it does not explode
on its own
norm, can a dream
deferred be refined?
the chinese might
have already hefted
deferred dream doomsday
bombs above the gravity
well, i suspect
india and our cities' children
work to “weaponize” it too
as with nonprescription
drugs bathtub gin
methedrine or uranium
not into bombs but nice
guerrilla antipersonnel weapons
fitting the modern city so
any thug can blow it:
the Dream Deferred One-Handed
Brimfire-Shitstorm Fragmentary
Force Projection Device: be
the enemy of your neighbors!
please ease my mind.
tell me the dual use potential
of dreams deferred has been
exhausted, say
dreams deferred are
ineradicably inert and i’ll go
restock sudafed and mad dog
at the shop
-- heyu