petty thinks she's pretty
she thinks the sun’s coming up
thinks that time standing still
ought to be
enough
doesn’t want you to know
that
just two months ago
she was still giving chase
‘mister man?
he'll wait’
she thinks that bitterness
and sneering are
opinions
of her own
wouldn't
want it known
that she’s just
singing along
or that now
she’s alone
petty
takes great delight in the suffering
and
the frustration
being right
about everything
the astute calculation in
her case for castration
based on the well-known precedent of
infatuation
she sat right down and
counted every february
she had left
she nodded her head and
said aloud
‘yeah that’s best’
the falsetto flames that burned down her
memories
were chronicled
in a letter-pressed
two hundred and sixty-one page libretto
like a hammer
it’s heavy
and if you hold it right
you can put out all kinds of lights
even if all you ever do is stare
at the hollywood types
but jezebel?
she feels fine
she likes
the way that it sounds
says
it keeps both her feet on the floor
and she’ll be the first one to tell you
that
the chairman of the board
is whitey mother fuckin’ ford
and that the good lord
didn’t
make no trash
but even non-verbals
are still attacks
she’ll turn to you and say
‘don’t talk to me with your sweet teeth
shhhhhh shhh shh
the trees are speakin’ to me
they’re whisperin’
gives me
the
anxiety
those
rustling leaves
are disturbing
my peace’
i remember jezzy lost her head once
but she found it
and put it right back on
petty thinks it’s long gone
don’t tell her
it’s not
well
emett till’s mama left that casket wide open
so the whole damn world could see
what they did to her boy
and this was years after gentleman jack
told ‘em all to go to the hot place
after he punched the great white hope in
his big fat face
and bobby? bobby?
well
says he’s giving up on green grasses
and girls who wear
glasses
go ahead
say it
he ain’t afraid of the hurt
everybody knows he’s a sucker
for anything
might be
comfortable in a skirt
or a low cut shirt
that can warble a sound
not a song
big and round
but something that looks enough like it
to get
well
i don’t know man
found?
like grace only got
amazing when the notes were unwound
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