Our
featured poet is Josh Fleming
and following is a poem that advanced him to the final round (which
he won!) at the 2002 Summer Slam at the La Paloma. Josh
is emcee for the Winter 2009 Slam at the La Paloma Theater.
Boom
It is sound
It is feeling
It is BOOM
BOOM
Is the silent explosion of an orchid
The expression of sunlight
The drop of a child’s tear
The pauses and beat between saying Yes and
No
BOOM
Is the pin dropping
It’s that other shoe falling
It’s the click of a discontent tongue
The sound of a thousand whispers
It’s of mothers wailing
And fathers cursing
And runaways running away
BOOM
Is universal
Planetary
It’s waterfalls converging
And continents colliding
Wars ending
And humanity surviving
Stars swirling
Galaxies high-fiving
BOOM
Just might save us all.
But perhaps I’m overanalyzing.
BOOM
Could be simple, easy, non-complex
It could be the bat of an eyelash
The interlacing of fingers
The smell of another who’s wrapped around you
like a sweaty package
And even then
BOOM
Could be about me
Just me
The creation of me
The fetus making it’s thunderous crash
The doctor when he cut open my mother to reveal
BOOM
BOOM
Just might be people I’ve know and never knew
it
It was my heart when I met her
That door when I left
That kiss of another that just leaves you
BOOM
And you were
BOOM
I had to trade in my old skin for a tougher
one
Because I wasn’t going to let you get in without
a fight
BOOM
Was the sound of a loved one
Calling to let me know he was in the process
of leaving this world
And then the sound of
9 BOOM
1 BOOM
1 BOOM
No
BOOM is beyond that
BOOM is more than this poem
It’s more than mere adjectives, nouns and verbs
It’s more than what you can see
More than what you can feel
BOOM
Is creation in its alternate forms
It’s motion when no one is looking
It’s what envelops our fears
Guides our love
And tells us when to shut up
BOOM
Is what makes you laugh
Makes you cry
Makes you live
Makes you die
BOOM
Is what makes you want to stand at the edge
of your shadow in a room with no light
It’s what they write books about but leave
no authors
It’s what science, religion and philosophy
wishes it had
But most importantly it’s what you make of
it
And to me it’s that glimpse out of the corner
of my eye
That pushes my adrenaline
Makes me want to scream
Makes me want to take a bite out of this so-called
reality
God help me if I ever get a hold of that
BOOM
Can you hear it?
BOOM
Can you feel it?
BOOM
(say it with me)
BOOM
(again)
BOOM
(louder)
BOOM
(like you mean it)
BOOM
(one more time)
BOOM
Now you’re getting the hang of it.
So now, when we see each other on the other
side
We can say it together without ever making
a sound
BOOM
It’s what makes the heavens shake
And the clouds roll
And the farther we walk away from each other
the louder it will get
And the people down below will hear it.
BOOM
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