Sweet Smellin Woman

When summer is comin,
and iris is bloomin
and red is the rose,
or when Fall's color shows
or when winter's wind blows,
when I need to feel human,
I cast off my woes,
my worries, my clothes,
and take my repose
with a sweet smellin woman

How can I begin,
find the right spin,
not get St. Paul chagrined,
or get him all fumin?
Most popes (I'm assumin)
lack the acumen
of Anais Nin
or Anthony Quinn,
(never mind Errol Flynn.)
They yang up their yin,
don't let the light in.
How blind they've all been!
Cause it's grace – not a sin-
to be skin to skin
with a sweet smellin woman.

Old age may be comin,
but I ain't succumbin
just yet. I ain't dumb and
though I do dread
my own grave, I ain't dead!
And so, like I said,
gonna lie here instead
in this big double bed
with my sweet smellin woman.

Don't need to sing psalms.
I hear The Lord hummin,
I hear angels strummin
their harps when I'm comin.
So until He summons me
I'll shed my qualms
in the best of all balms.
Cause for me nothin' calms
than to lie in the arms
of a sweet smellin woman.

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"