Slam Poetry

I went to a poetry slam
bam bam bam
painted words ejected with violence
shredding the serenity
of my insanity, making me acutely hungry
for love, for life, for a razor-sharp knife
and fuck fuck here and a fuck fuck there
beautiful bountiful breasts, the word "penis" and wild
gesticulations as they thrum thrum thrum their chests
tugging on titanium tough bass strings of heart strings
and don't you ever forget to
"read the fucking poem", you little big
not-poets who don't even know it

oh, you're treading on tightropes, balancing tautly
so artfully vulnerable that you're not at all
just an act floating above that great lake of sincerity
pretending to swim, but too afraid of drowning to touch a drop
oh, your bloodlust is up and you sway to and fro
working up some kind of flow, hurling verbal missiles
to the tune of some concerto, thinking you're the soundtrack
to an orange clockwork and with content like island empire

[canned laughter for rabbit-head sitcom while girl in hotel wept]

awkwardly juxtaposed moments of the surreal and sublime
so deliberately wacked, congealing nonsensical humor,
and worst of all the audience members who laughed so raucously
at the serious & scary, parts that didn't even seem to be trying
for humor, just down and out recounts of some sexual violence
and it creeped me out, man, the way they laughed, and
the way the slam poetry fans cheered and hooted for each insult
and each curse word, and in the hall i heard
a fan accost a poet, "I wept baby jesus tears for your poem"
& I quietly gagged in disgust

comeuppance came later in the form of omekongo
a true poet who nearly blew my mind, so grounded
in world-wise depths of reality, unleashing words/content that actually seemed
about more than just self-promotion and look-at-me, I'm a deadly
word-slinger mentality and best of all at the end of his set,
he devoted a poem to everyone in the room
a slam to to the slam-poets
about the difference between poets and not-poets
those who really care for the words and grow
and those who care only for the show
Word.