CHOW from Yalm Mandy by Coley Mixan

I’m a ready-made, mechanical procedure
Like mutable occasion: a breather
I pause—to inhale
In the clause of my tale
And wow, we write it down! O,
Generations applaud my sloth
But is it all that I got?
I don’t know!

I’m over determined and overstuffed
in the slippery syntax of my gruff
Langston Hughes used to call it design
But now it’s really possible for us to waste our time
Involve yourself in the mess
then accommodate the rest
Resist yourself at the front of your tongue!
You’ve got to Disrupt
Everything you’ve ever thought…it sure is a lot!

It’s preauthorized
Anticipated demise
It’s a mutable occasion
Of our frustrations!
Detangling symbolism
In the colors of our prisms
You know we’ve been entertaining ourselves with these lies
...oh my!

The word—a book!
Who’s got that spool of tape?
The vice—yet a look!
hot, cooled...sedate?
It’s a revelation just to try to make it frightening
I am lightening! I am lightening! I am lightening!
I am myself only when I’m doubtful and I’m distracted
By the solidarity they are forcing down on me
Like a sentence with structure, intimate vocabulary
I'm springing commonality between you and me
Is it an excess of doubt and distraction?
But you know that I am laughing!
I am laughing, I am laughing, I am laughing?
and simply punctuated?

When I boil myself down into ascension
I will rise up into what is essential

• Rock
• dance-pop
• funk
• indie
• queer
• queercore
• Seattle