. .. taking back Harlem .. .

.

I stood on the girder-bridge
where cold grey water passes
wiped my tear-stained face
tried to clear the mote stuck ote’ my eye
I have never been to Harlem

The Clyde she passes by the Gorbals
south-side of that pulsing city
out where the old slum sits
they dressed her in respectability
but she is a sow on heat with 14 teats

Swam long – the Rubicon
water shallow an’ ’twas muddied
of decisions laid long-side the shoreline
torn hearts and corpses bloodied
I have never been in Rome

Or sat by the banks of Purus River
where there is still sweet water
west of one unspoilt tree savanah
the axe is sharper when it’s clean
the worst murders – those unseen

Travelled to St Louis to see another river
laid my roots down by Maggie’s farm
strange that I reverse my decision to disarm
that day the bomb struck in Kiev
children died, others arms were severed

Floating down the Tigris River
with no desire to kill or maim
I noticed there a crocodile ‘ere teeth so sharp
a sign hung over his scarred head
It read ‘kill or be killed, till you are dead’

When I was young so full o’spunk
dreamed I to re-populate the earth
mama said ‘your balls too big for your head’
‘we all swam in that particular river’
mama’s words a shotgun to my head

I won’t swim the Harlem River
8 mile long it could damage your liver
outfits full a’blood with striped bass and the flounder
junk-business floats, it makes you shiver
I have never been to Harlem – no never

To trace the Yara to its origin
you will find it always muddy
upside-down and full of bodies
Yarro-yarro, indigenous, holy
sink a place of truth and dares

We squander liberty, forfeit heat
to journey up the Glåmaq
the vastness of Gudbrandsdalen valley
in the land of the midnight sun
to wear Norse legend and mythology

I must return to Shoreditch, to Botafago
to Harlem in the midst of where we left them
drug-lords prosper those rivers of convenience
turn the stone on this obscene prohibition
oust Custer needs be fifth amendment too

©edenbraytoday19.07.2022