Ishmael Reed Poetry
poem from Mumbo Jumbo
beware : do not read this poem
Being a colored poet
Is like going over
Niagara Falls in a
Barrel
An 8 year old can do what
You do unaided
The barrel maker doesn't
The you can cut it
The gawkers on the bridge
Hope you fall on your
Face
The tourist bus full of
Paying customers broke-down
Just out of Buffalo
Some would rather dig
The postcards than
Catch your act
Amile from the drink
It begins to storm
But what really hurts is
You're bigger than the
Barrel
Look at them! Just look at them!
throwing their hips this way, that
way while I, my muscles, stone,
the marrow of my spine, plaster, my
back supported by decorated paper,
stand here as goofy as a Dumb Dora
Lord, if I can't dance, No one shall.
beware : do not read this poem
tonite, thriller was
abt an ol woman, so vain she
surrounded herself w /
many mirrors
it got so bad that finally she
locked herself indoors & her
whole life became the
mirrors
one day the villagers broke
into her house , but she was too
swift for them . she disappeared
into a mirror
each tenant who bought the house
after that , lost a loved one to
the ol woman in the mirror :
first a little girl
then a young woman
then the young woman/s husband
the hunger of this poem is legendary
it has taken in many victims
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr feet
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr legs
back off from this poem
it is a greedy mirror
you are into this poem . from
the waist down
nobody can hear you can they ?
this poem has had you up to here
belch
this poem aint got no manners
you cant call out frm this poem
relax now & go w / this poem
move & roll on to this poem
do not resist this poem
this poem has yr eyes
this poem has his head
this poem has his arms
this poem has his fingers
this poem has his fingertips
this poem is the reader & the
reader this poem
statistic : the us bureau of missing persons
re-
ports that in 1968 over 100,000 people
disappeared leaving no solid clues
nor trace only
a space in the lives of their friends