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Sept/Oct 2020 • Vol. XLII No. 5 • All of This Is True |

‘what’s that fuss?’ 1979 (for donnell)

invocation

barry farms

say what now

barry farms

say what now

high top fades & hawaiian shirts.
howard theater. hot street tapes
clearer than boomers off the board.
who wants those “P-A” joints anyway?
you can barely hear the people up front
screaming:

barry farms

say what now

barry farms

say what now

we right by the stage. in big tony’s
grill. sugar bear. smokey hall on congas
destroying his hands. handling skin
like he molding pizza dough. gary
clarke who once politely announced
the death of a fan’s kin on the beat.

sandy h on guitar, mac curry indy 500
hands rolling on the toms. roots of
grass. working class. shaking ass.
old church instruments. high
school horns horny as hoes.

blow your horns for the

blow your horns for the

barry farms

barry farms

donnell make my memorex. hands me
a j. of his father’s best weed stash & we wait.
don’t make a sound. dawn my adidas bag full of
the early days. like parades in storyville, the wailers
in kingston, with their very best west indian wail.

my boom is a panasonic. eject button don’t work.
when i pass by the corners strutting old guys drinking
cheap rum & coke talk of trash cans & mutter a sly
stone addiction. my brain’s pleasure center tunes it out.
trouble funk’s unlimited experience making peace
guide my steps.

one mo’ time

barry farms
say what now

barry farms
say what now

barry farms
say what now . . .

tonight i head on down to the cave yard
it’s saturday night, and err-body gonna

party hard

say what

party hard . . .

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