I Sing the Ass

To slight the soul would be insane.
I speak the noble heart and brain.
Head nor heart would I disdain.
And yet, though crass,
I sing that globe God cleft in twain:
I sing the ass.

Oh heaven fashioned fleshly mounds,
so soft, so fair, so firm, so round.
No matter how absurd it sounds:
the ass. It stuns!
There true paradise abounds.
I sing the buns.

Shoulders are wonders, and eyes dark as night.
Thighs are a marvel, and breasts a delight.
And that sweet cleft allures whether shaven or bushy.
But none can compare to the lure of a tushy.

Nothing has the same effect
as a well turned ass. Yes, that's correct.
So like a jewel without defect,
it turns my fine tuned intellect
to mush.
To hell with honor and respect,
I sing the tush.

When the rhythms of Appolo
drag, and his lyre rings too hollow,
steal away with me and wallow
in the new sown fields with Isis,
quaff a cup with Dionysus,
shatter this didactic crises.
Don't be harassed
by rules and rates and rising prices.
Sing the ass.

I sift through tomes, re-reading reams
of papers, poems, until it seems
my smile is stuck. My soul ungleams.
A brooding darkness in me teems…
And then, a light within me beams:
critical mass!
I fling away these petty schemes,
And live at last inside my dreams.
I sing the ass.

Shake it, shake it, shake that thing,
Quiver flesh and clothing cling.
Teach that bootie how to swing,
and raise a ruckus.
Oh quelque tu! Oh bodda bing!
I dance the tuchus.

So you can keep your fancy food,
And all the knowledge you've pursued.
My limbic brain erupts, exudes
through frontal lobe-like attitudes
(so middle class).
I know it's sick. I know it's lewd.
I know I'm warped, unkempt, unglued.
But though I'm vilified and booed,
I sing the buttocks in the nude.
I sing the ass.

New Poems

• "Battle Hymn of the Republic, Indeed"
• "Ode to a Banana"
• "Moving on After 1/6"
• "Hug"
• "Map-less Monarchs"
• "I am Such a Rich Man"
• "Beatitude with Attitude"
• "The Cross and the Lynching Tree Rap"
• "The Nudist Nun"
• "Sonnet 19"
• "Reparations Now"
• "Hoping I'm Wrong"
• "Bird Feeder"
• "Pete and Henry"
• "Nero: A Rap for Republicans"
• "Croissant"
• "Mandela"
• "The New Jim Crow"
• "The Wire"
• "Why Socialism?"

From By Heart

• "Ahiti"
• "As Some Fertile Seed"
• "Greed Screed"
• "I Sing the Ass"
• "Lying Lost Among Your Arms"
• "Now Thou Art Two and Twenty"
• "Sweet Smellin Woman"
• "This World"
• "Train Wreck"
• "Truth and Parable"
• "Why This Itch This Yen"
• "You"

Some Earlier Poems

• "Al and Bob"
• "The Lonely Puddle"
• "Ode to a Bagel"
• "The Rose"
• "Sardinia"
• "When Love's Liqueur"

Audio Recordings

• "Abu Ghraib"
• "Things About Kings"