I am a sometimes poet
a genius but in a useless
kind of way
who thinks
and I drink and I bullshit
I bullshit a lot
I am a junkie waiting for
popular culture to hit rock bottom
I am not to be confused
with a role model
I will not be your role model
I am the homeless
a CTA comedian without
bus fare
I am the youngest of five playing the role
of the worried mother and the absent father
I'm in love again but with a pushy bottom
I am an azz lover
a tit lover
a leg lover
a man's man
a woman's man often feeling broke
sucked, suckered and dry
I am a popular nobody
a pot head
a 1990's sex head
I am a serial masturbator
I'd like to give you some head
I learned to sing the blues at age four
     unemployed
          laid off
walked off
hired and fired
I remember 1969
 the nigga with the silver gun
that shot Ophelia and hearing Fahey Flynn
report it on the ten o'clock news
"Mother of six shot 3 times in critical condition
at Cook County Hospital."

I am Marley's soul rebel
always running IN and OUT of other's lives
talking about the mind, the MIND THIS, the MIND THAT
the MIND, the MIND, the MIND, is a terrible thang
          to fuck up
I am a creep, a tight black jean wearing faggot,
a leader without any followers
I am the original lonely playboy
campus clown, 1978-1981

          I WILL CHEAT YOU!
but I'm an honest looser
I dig Bird, Billie, Baldwin, Bootsy, Baraka,
That's My Mama, Blacula, Bowie, Monk, Huey
J.B., Curtis Mayfield, Pryor, Chaka, Aretha,
Bad Brains, Nina Simone, Sly, Prince,
and the Hues Corporation
I am a Mister know it all
who hasn't been asked
the right question

tonight, I feel like a mamaless boy
tonight, I feel like a papaless boy
I confess, I CUNTFESS, THIS IS A FUCKED UP POEM
I'M Fucked UP for living it and all of you
are FUCKED UP for listening to it ...
I came in last place in a big dick contest
I am the ugly duckling that married the horny whore
I am a cold bastard
a dumb bastard
a super stud
a super pussy with a super hard on
an immature misfit
misunderstood
misinterpreted
mischievous snotty nose brat
a rib eating
          steak eating

    okra eating

cunt eating snob

I am an UP Town freak
a New Town freak
a freak's freak
I am an AFREAKEN
you have nothing to fear

I am the king
but I've felt like a court jester
a queen
an ace of spade
I am a real card for people who feel sorry for me
I am an inspiration
a stargazer waiting for Sun Ra to make a cameo
on the Star Trek Enterprise
I am the bad/good guy in this endless sitcom
that you call LIFE
I am a self-denying buppie
a yes man
a back-seat man
a skin head, baptized with spit
I am a six foot, one hundred eighty-nine pound
adonis, who cried after watching the movie,
Imitation of Life, for the seventh straight time
I am a Jesus head
sent to jail on d.o.c. assault and battery
and possession of zig zags
I am a human time bomb
procrastinating, to die.

-- by Marvin Tate