Long Rita Poems

Lost dexterity since fingers tap away at qwerty keyboard...

since being a student in grade, junior and high school
analogous to geometry proof how lack of use proves
quite aware that finger muscles atrophied
veering off on a tangent...

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As soon as I heard 
You were the First African American Male
To win the Pulitzer prize for Poetry
I wanted to run out and celebrate
I wanted to wake up Hughes and Dunbar
And Baraka and say we...

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It was the summer of 2014, I was just about to turn 13, spending June of summer vacation with my Grandmère, in Paris. Tonight, we’re at a fundraising benefit for African relief (it’s always *something*)....

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Upon the precipice of an abyss

I stand able, eager, & ready to jump
impossible mission to swallow lump
muscles primed analogous to pump
prayer for soft landing on mine rump
bereft this johnny come lately trump
petting and donning shock...

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Clinton's Inauguration 1993

You were so beautiful, Maya
Standing in front of the
President and the First Lady


I didn’t really understand
Your Pulse Of Morning 
Presidential inauguration poem
I kind of got lost in the dinosaur theme
Poems about Mastodons usually
Don’t...

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I guess she wanted to fight, 
The first encounter started off with a 
"Hi"My name is Revue, born and raised in the Lou 
What's your name?And from whereabouts in the US are you? 
She stared...

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"Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, He's coming back again today."
Grace kept on her rhythmic jump roping and singing her little ditty.
She used to sing these words instead, "Jesus is coming, Jesus is
coming back again...

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it’s wonderful,
amazing the world dwellers are
civilized they’re as well as I’m really!

with them-

my language is English
I’m civilized!
my language is Arabic, Mandarin, French, Bengali etc
I’m civilized!
I’m fully literate on grammar
I’m civilized!
I’m highest educated on economics, politics,...

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Hark! Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc fought for nationality and self-government,
The right to citizenship and an to identity that's yours,
One to do with your country, your space and your privileges;
She ended the medieval age saying...

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To the authorities, your hands may be clean...yet to those who matter most...to those
looking up at you now with welled up eyes, your hands drip reddish black with my
blood...the children catch a glimpse of your...

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There was a poetry slam the Sunday after 9/11/01..my whatever she still is to me,
….she said “well free, did you write something about 9/11.  She’s a very good poet 
as well, so I responded...

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love is a book
sex is sport
sex is choice
Love is luck
Love is notion, theorem
love is melodrama
sex is cinema
Sex is imagination, fantasy
love is prose
sex is poetry
Love turn us
 pathetic
Sex makes us 
 as if LIVING in a...

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Welcome to Shamukuni Street,  
Where the city breathes in vibrant chaos,  
Police sirens whirling,  
A symphony of urgency and defiance—  
Each wail a reminder,  
That life here never sleeps, ...

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YOU CAN GIVE YOUR BEST

Today’s stench in today’s society
Today’s filth in today’s leaders
Today’s corruption in today’s nation
Are the ill-results of yesterday’s ill-attention
	
Fathers, Mothers, Guardians and Teachers
Invest in today’s kids your fishes 
From the seas of...

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today when we went to visit you 
we saw a little leprachaun visiting with you 
He was there at the gravesite sitting with you 
he greeted us so happily 
" so very pleased to meet...

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Even should a mother forget
but she cannot
but even if she could
God has sent His mother
to hold the bloodied limbs
in her arms
just as she held God’s humanity
in the folds of her dress
when all had been done.
Her...

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Go ahead, try to separate the races.
You politicians have egg, on your malicious faces.

Not realizing in your frozen hearts.
You toss imperfect, very hopeless darts.

Neither money nor educatiion
Can separate friends of the American nation.

Equity for Blacks...

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AntiPoem 31 “Rita Montero”

(Poet’s instruction: Kindly play “Ay, Mama Inez” 
by Rita Montero while reading this AntiPoem)

a red trolley finds Ebbets Field behind a pigtown ditch
significant hotdogs and burnt singles melt into the pitch
Jackie Robinson...

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When we learned our elderly, kind granddad had died,
All paternal cousins traveled, gathered and cried.
Later, the ‘reception drive’ offered varied rides;
In Rachel’s auto, they shared a liquor-filled flask
And in Rob’s ancient van, a joint or...

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In this age of 'Instant Karma' happiness is turned away,
'All you need is love' to guide you well at least that's what they say,
'In my life' I've witnessed miracles the ghost of 'Yesterday',
When a certain...

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Angela, Andy, Amber, angels, ambience, attitudes, altitude, all-purpose flour.
Beds, breakfast, brightness, brevity, butter pecan ice cream, bald eagles. 
Cali, Carolyn, Chelsea, creativity, compassion, craftiness, cleverness. 
Dick, Daisy, Dwight, Deborah, dare devils, delightful deeds, designs.
Emily, Elise,...

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Rita was visiting. She pointed off the road. Let’s go there. So we did. It was the CIA - Culinary Institute of America. Like Auntie Mame, my aunt was a world traveler, an adventurer. My...

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Just A Thin Blue Ribbon
Sponsor: Rita A. Simmonds


It’s not just a globe…

The atmosphere’s wonder is held within a deep creation,
   with natural lands made out of nickel, iron and clay,
   ...

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Tomorrow’s history makers
Future record breakers
Are the infants of this day
They should be taught well
In order to lead the way

They should be taken forward
In the fear of God 
By the responsible one’s above them
Ye parents, guardians...

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It had been a hot and dusty week chasin' them wily steers thro' the chaparral.
And, later, sweatin, cussin' and brandin' them wild critters in the old corral!
It was Saturday night and he was headin' for...

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