Bicycles: Love Poems Read online

  Bicycles

  Love Poems

  Nikki Giovanni

  DEDICATION

  Bicycles: because love requires trust and balance

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Blacksburg Under Siege: 21 August 2006

  In Simpler Times

  If Only

  Field Notes

  Migrations

  I Am Jazz

  Shoe Jazz Blue Jazz

  The 3rd Rail

  I Am Confused

  My New Car

  Dinner At Nine

  My Muse

  I Am Glass

  No Heaven

  Alchemical

  Your Shower

  Good Night

  My Sleep

  Bicycles

  I Like The Dance

  I Would Not Be Different

  Give It A Go?

  Another Day (Revisited)

  Christmas Laughter

  I Want A Shoe

  A Drunken Phone Call

  A Substitute For You

  I Know The Song

  I Am A Mirror

  Everything Good Is Simple

  Deal Or No Deal

  I Provide

  Gray Clouds Hover

  I Am The Ocean

  I Clean

  So Enchanted With You

  How To Save The World

  Free Huey

  My Beer

  They Think

  Why Don’t You Love Me

  First Chair

  Friends and Lovers

  Love (And The Meaning Of Love)

  Flight Delay

  Travelers

  Trash Pans

  Letting The Air Out

  Fame

  Duets

  Boiled Blues

  Love Luther

  A Song For You

  Friends In Love

  No Translations

  Twirling

  Good Books

  Got A Minute (To Fall In Love?)

  Where Do You Enter

  Tourism

  The Scenic Route

  Tree Line

  The Artist

  A Fish Out of Water

  We Are Virginia Tech

  An Excerpt from A Good Cry

  BABY WEST

  BIG MAYBELLE

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Nikki Giovanni

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  BLACKSBURG UNDER SIEGE: 21 AUGUST 2006

  (for Carolyn Rude)

  Not safe…not even all that nice…when you think about it…What mean fraternity boys do with their fists…and drunk fraternity boys do with their penises…barefoot boys do with guns…Whether it’s a redneck screaming “nigger”…or a poet hollering “titties”…illegal and unkind behavior tells someone s/he doesn’t belong…check it…check it out…

  Not nice…No…And no reason to feel safe

  A good day…someone pointed out…however…to be black…or a woman…and not be hunted…and not have to hold your head down…and not have to quiver…when you pass a man…police…or professional…yet still knowing…at any given moment…you are a target…

  “They didn’t move fast enough”…they cried…“They could have done more”…they demanded…“More to let us hold on to our illusions of safe…to let us hold on to our illusion of fair…to let us hold on to our illusions…illusions…illusions”…And whether it was a bullet flying or an animal cracker coming straight at you…it was an attack…And yes…maybe there could be faster motion…faster lockdown…faster dismissal…but hey there is the bigger picture…and after all he didn’t mean it…his leg was sprained…he’s so intelligent…so talented…so special…he didn’t realize his heart was blind…he didn’t understand he was causing pain…Bang! Bang…he sang…I shot you Down but I really didn’t have a gun…and just because you’re dead…doesn’t mean I really did it…

  I shot the deputy…hey hey…he sings…but I only pretended with the rest of you

  And in the end he was very careful with himself…Sure not to be treated the way he treated McFarland and Sutphin…Avoiding the knockout blow or killer smile he dealt the man who came when he called “Help”…Silencing his victims with death for their goodwill and sense of decency…Or their pity for him…Do all the sane and sober things to protect yourself, Monster…so that you can plead Innocent By Reason of Not Paying Close Attention…Threaten us that you can make Blacksburg not ever be the same again…

  But we will be the same…willful ignorance will overpower indignation every time…

  That still does not make us nice…and it sure doesn’t make us safe

  IN SIMPLER TIMES

  I talk to myself

  People think I am on my phone

  In simpler days

  I would have been considered strange

  People would feel sorry

  For me

  And called me Crazy

  I would have walked down the street

  Carrying brown paper bags

  Arguing laughing sometimes

  Humming a tune

  I am alone

  At the kitchen sink

  Or behind the wheel

  Of my car

  Taking the roasted chicken

  With root vegetables out of the oven

  It’s easy to see

  The delight I am taking

  In this life

  I am always smiling

  I am in love

  IF ONLY

  If I had never been in your arms

  Never danced that dance

  Never inhaled your slightly sweaty odor

  Maybe I could sleep at night

  If I had never held your hand

  Never been so close

  To the most kissable lips in the universe

  Never wanted ever so much

  To rest my tongue in your dimple

  Maybe I could sleep at night

  If I wasn’t so curious

  About whether or not you snore

  And when you sleep do you cuddle your pillow

  What you say when you wake up

  And if I tickle you

  Will you heartedly laugh

  If this enchantment

  This bewilderment

  This longing

  Could cease

  If this question I ache to ask

  could be answered

  If only I could stop dreaming

  of you

  Maybe I could sleep

  at night

  FIELD NOTES

  (On You)

  3rd and long

  I go for it

  4th and short

  I jump over the pile

  Someone hears a moan

  That would be me

  Someone heard a sigh

  That would be you

  A pile of sugar

  A pile of salt

  I dip my finger

  And taste

  They said

  You hadn’t been seen

  In over twenty years

  They think

  You might be

  Extinct

  I know better

  I saw you smile

  Rare…yes

  But still here

  Inviting me

  To fall

  In love

  MIGRATIONS

  When the sun returns

  to the arctic circle

  from its winter rest

  The grasses sprout

  seducing the winged

  and the hoofed

  Polar bears and their cubs

  must flee

  Before the ice

  breaks up

  Althoug
h others begin

  a northern journey

  The Snow Goose flies

  from the Gulf of Mexico

  to mate and birth her young

  Two million Mongolian Gazelles move

  over the tundra where each gives birth

  at the same time defying

  the will of predators

  who would consume

  the gazelles’ future

  Though only, of course,

  to provide nourishment

  for their own

  young predators

  Let’s not judge

  too harshly

  Salmon swim upstream

  jumping falls

  and grizzly bears

  Grasshoppers

  ignoring the advice

  Of ants

  make music

  to celebrate

  Winter’s end

  Monarch butterflies

  leaving the safety

  Of Zihuatanejo

  forge north

  Beginning the longest winged journey

  Spring

  With only the hope of warmth

  and the promise of grasses

  They unflinchingly face:

  Hunger

  Thirst

  Predators

  Winds

  Rains

  Uncertainties

  As would I

  For you

  I AM JAZZ

  I am jazz

  I am smooth but not pop

  I am cool but not contained

  I run the soundtrack

  Of your life

  You enter me with dissonance

  Then command a little rag

  There may even be a prayer or two

  Somewhere in there

  I am jazz

  When you are alone

  I come to you

  Giving you rhythm to work

  And rhyme to care

  I agree with pure jazz

  I am safe for your dog

  Cool for the cats

  Salt in the pond

  For your fish

  You need me

  Admit it

  You need me

  SHOE JAZZ BLUE JAZZ

  Green shoes

  Blue shoes

  Red shoes

  Good news

  Bad news

  Suede shoes

  No ties

  Loose pants

  Pink shoes

  Shining

  White shoes

  Whining

  All shoes

  Dining

  On the little ants

  Your shoes

  Her shoes

  My shoes

  Good news

  His shoes

  Those shoes

  Miles Davis

  All Blues

  THE 3RD RAIL

  I was running

  Running running

  I wasn’t in a hurry

  ’Cause I didn’t have anyplace

  To go

  I’ve been in love

  Before

  And I know

  The best thing to do

  It’s not like I’ve been

  Hurt

  And there is way more jazz Than blues

  When I soundtrack

  My life

  It’s just that the time

  To persuade

  And seduce

  Runs into Law & Order

  Not to mention Monday Night

  Football

  And I do have book club

  Garden club

  And though I should give up

  I am still trying

  To train the dog

  I also have a job

  And dirty clothes

  And dinnertime requirements

  So I was running

  ’Cause there just wasn’t any

  More time in the day

  But then you smiled

  And I smiled back

  And not paying enough attention

  I stepped on that 3rd rail

  I AM CONFUSED

  I am confused

  I am in a not so much fog

  As gray cloud

  I cannot read

  The landmarks

  Let alone

  The Danger signs

  I do not know

  Where I am

  Or how I got here

  I am lost

  I want to find myself

  In your arms

  MY NEW CAR

  I drive

  like I have a new car

  I don’t want anyone

  to bump it

  or scratch it

  or actually get too close

  to it

  Stay in your own lane

  I want to shout

  But I stay satisfyingly cool

  I fit in

  I relax

  I don’t want you to think I think

  I have any reason

  To be jealous

  DINNER AT NINE

  I am seated

  given a wine

  and entrée menu

  I smile

  and happily talk

  I nod my head

  and let my hands express

  Compliance

  Competence

  and a gentle but questioning

  Compassion

  People think I am

  on the phone

  They recognize

  I am in love

  I order the ’04 Malbec

  the baked mussels

  (though my favorite is boiled)

  the sautéed soft-shell crab/

  a nice green salad

  the bread is hot

  and the butter soft

  I am comfortable

  In this little French restaurant

  And made welcome

  Yet

  When my order arrives

  The waiter doesn’t understand

  Why there is only

  me

  MY MUSE

  I am my own

  Muse

  I delight me

  With my words

  Of both wisdom

  And wit

  I teach myself

  So much

  Such insight

  Into the human

  Soul

  Such compassion

  For the weak and weary

  Such utter contempt

  For the self-satisfied

  I think

  What a wonderful world

  It would be

  If only people

  Would listen

  To me

  I look at the full moon

  And bay

  Come

  Come

  Come to me

  Let’s explore

  A new world

  I AM GLASS

  I am glass

  You can see through me

  I’m easily hurt

  Any little pebble can cause a scratch

  I rise in neither love nor need

  If you black me out

  I become a mirror

  If you open me

  I am a part of a door

  We are all more than our experiences

  And less than our dreams

  If you blow your breath on me

  I can fog

  Then you can write your name Claiming me

  For you

  For all time

  Or

  At least

  Until the sun shines

  NO HEAVEN

  How can there be

  No Heaven

  When rain falls

  gently on the grass

  When sunshine scampers

  across my toes

  When corn bakes

  into bread

  When wheat melts

  into cake

  When shadows

  cool

  And owls

  call

  And little finches

  eat upside

&nbs
p; down

  How can there be

  No Heaven

  When tears comfort

  When dreams caress

  When you smile

  at me

  ALCHEMICAL*

  I am the cricket

  In the grass

  I talk by rubbing

  My wings against