Feeling Fucked Up

Lord she’s gone done left me done packed / up and split and I with no way to make her come back and everywhere the world is bare bright bone white crystal sand glistens dope death dead dying and jiving drove her away made her take her laughter and her smiles and her softness and her midnight sighs— Fuck Coltrane and music and clouds drifting in the sky fuck the sea and trees and the sky and birds and alligators and all the animals that roam the earth fuck marx and mao fuck fidel and nkrumah and democracy and communism fuck smack and pot and red ripe tomatoes fuck joseph fuck mary fuck god jesus and all the disciples fuck fanon nixon and malcolm fuck the revolution fuck freedom fuck the whole muthafucking thing all i want now is my woman back so my soul can sing Etheridge Knight, “Feeling Fucked Up” from The Essential Etheridge Knight. Copyright © 1986 sometimes u just hafta get it out. This poem does that quite splendidly. I could change it, update it to current situations, replace bush with nixon, communism with china, smack with crack, etc...but the thrust of emotions rest on the sword tip of that crazy wanting, that physical nearness, wanting it so much nothing else matters...