F**k Cancer

Got out to my first poetry cabaret since I went to The Beautiful and the Damned last month. I’ve been so in the thick of The Lazarus Kiss edits I haven’t been able to focus properly on poetry edits. The last few open stages I hit I used old material, so it was time to break out some new pieces. I have to be careful not to use prose edit attitude for poetry – even though story line is important in both – in poetry I try keep the language flow a little more playful.

I’ve been using my Kindle for readings to cut down on the amount of paper I have to deal with. Is the Kindle any better for the environment? Anyway – it is certainly easier to handle than loose pages at the mic. I bump up the font size, save it as a PDF & load what I’m going to read onto the Kindle. It’s kinda cool to see my name as authors.

The April BuDa was hosted by Nik Beat of CIUT’s Howl. He gives good host. Nik has an up coming book signing/talk for his collection of poems The Tyranny of Love.

Lizzie Violet, the first feature, rocked the stage in leopard skin with a fun set that was a mix of horror, childhood memories & relationship ironies. A love poem to a ghost asked it to ‘make the writing on the wall clearer.’ Like her I once buried a baby sibling in stuffed animals – learning, the hard way, the difference between affection and attempted asphyxiation. The set was well-pace and heartfelt. She’ll be hosting the BuDa’s October’s Day Of The Dead themed show.

Helen Posno was the second feature. Her pieces were introspective with strong nature imagery. Her stage presence was ‘a boat pulling at its tether’ (from one her pieces) that longed to break free. Peter Lynch delivered one of her monologues and really broke free with a stunning and moving performance.

Final musical feature was Kat Leonard with a fun and emotion set. Her Depp song was sweet, sexy and rocking. Fuck Cancer gave anger, grief & loss a rare combination of humor and pain. This woman can sing too. Great theatrical sense of stage and excellent use of the stripper pole.

Open stagers were all excellent. I hit the mic in the first set – my new pieces worked well – two still need better endings but that’ll come. My third piece was a real audience pleaser. You’ll have to come to my June Art Bar feature to hear it.

Here’s one of the new pieces – still in search of an ending:

Whowie

my dad never gave me that talk

the one about the birds and the bees

about how the man sticks

his whowie into a woman’s wowie

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I guess he expected me learn about sex

the way he did

from an older brother

too bad I didn’t have one

or maybe it was from his army buddies

in WWII

I never had army buddies

never fought in a war

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we never had that sex talk

about whowie’s and wowie’s

the basics came from school yard smutty talk

technical information from playboy penthouse

found a book hidden in a drawer

color plates as exciting as a terrain map

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I don’t recall any man-to-man talks with dad

where he explained how life works

about getting a job  making a family

by the time I had the information needed to breed

I was more interest in whowie’s that wowie’s

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my dad never talked to me about sex

what might he have known about queers

when I came out

there was no conversation beyond

am I happy

he had no tips on increasing sexual pleasure

we never spoke about the emotional dance

between men and women

let alone between men

all that I learned from the joy of gay sex

the timid porn of the time

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yet I was a quick learner

given the chance to explore

it was easier than riding a bike

and didn’t hurt as much when I fell