Some Kinda Railroad Station

Lamont B. Steptoe

it ain't

always me

talkin' to ya chirren

it ain't always me

mixing up gaslone utterances

scarin' motherfuckers

to death

with threats and guilt

sometimes

there be minor gods and goddesses

ridin' my back

holdin' an automatic weapon

to my conscious mind

movin' my lips

and racin' my heart

it ain't always me roarin' and weepin'

and shoutin'

bustin' time in the head

with a bottle of 'bird

it ain't always me

that even says "good mornin"

sometimes

someone dead

200 years or 2000 years dead

works me like a puppet

makin' me move my hands and feet

naw

some mornin'

and some nights

I don't even know

who I be

or who's livin' in me

multitudes come and go

like I was some kinda railroad station

sometimes

I get up in the mornin'

feelin' like a lonely young woman

and go to bed at night

as masculine

as a Mexican bullfighter

sometimes 

it ain't Maybelle's Boy

with my fac e on

it  ain't Maybelle's Boy

with my fingerprints and Black skin

sometimes

it be a disciplined monk

or a hightop Stacy Adams show wearin'

bible thumpin' fried chicken eatin'

      blackcoated

fiery prophet burnin' bush Godfarin'

southern born preacher

it ain't

always me chirren

mixin' up gasoline utterances

sometimes

it just be's

dreamers and martyrs

passin' through

the neighborhood

on a flatbed truck

of wind and lightnin'

      from Tribes Issue 6