Poem
I have always wanted to appear in a poem. Will you write it for me?
posted by Todd Colby at 9:55 PM
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
About Me
- Name: Todd Colby
- Location: Brooklyn, NY, United States
Todd Colby is a Brooklyn-based poet and artist. Colby is the author of six books of poetry. His most recent book, Splash State, was published by The Song Cave in 2014. His writing and art have recently appeared in Bomb Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Denver Quarterly, Dizzy Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Poetry Magazine. Instagram: @toddjcolby
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9 Comments:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
It will desecrate my pure and true love for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar if I say too much about it. I’ve said too much already. You may think of me less as a triathlete and more as a person who has made up
to five mistakes in her life. You may ask me, “Do you have a sports hero?” And I will say, “No.” I will be thinking about goggles and earnest eyes and—oh, what movie was he in?—and then I will distract myself with Stewart Copeland. Han Solo. Steve Martin in The Jerk. Everything I ate in the last twenty-four hours, brand names and all. How I ate some grape tomatoes with a funny name. Something something farm. Glee Farm. No, that’s the name of Todd Colby’s blog. “No.” Don’t lets give voice to it.
ABDUL-JABBAR, KAREEM vs. COLBY, TODD J.
The shift I felt around the harp’s bladder
Went shining over the roof’s vein. It was
Old and existed in the Madame’s shy drapery.
Up we came over the haunted landfill
Our face and neck still wet from splashdown.
There were clouds, all kinds of carelessness
Hammered into the pine egg. “We could,”
he noted, “remain in the weather we’ve had
Or shoot off again, mining the opposite reef.”
You. You are my Valentine. I hope this tray of blintz
Feeds the look you were saving.
Wonder is the bubble glasses
hot shot smooth as smooth is
a lot in walks Todd Colby
in skin suit and hopping
that's a canopy of grapefruit
rinds for the many.
(written with the help of altavista translator-from french)
janice
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (For Todd Colby)
In this air
the ball
and the flow:
it is Todd
Colby leaping
so an insect
is on sticky
paper still alive
score!
XO Jenny
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
wasn’t really ever
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The legend overtook the man
- the tail wags the weary dog.
Sometimes the dog doesn’t mind.
The hunger and the feeding
of that hunger
like to chase each other
in circles -
Todd Colby understands that.
Just one more, Todd.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (heroes & other myths)
Making you comfortable
is my goal.
I wish I were more
like my heroes.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would
gulp down this splinter of fear
and with a steely gaze
deliver.
Todd Colby would finger through
the shards of jagged glass
and fashion himself
a new window.
I am not that brave on Wednesdays.
I will pretend to have no arms,
or hold tight to the fabric
where my fingertips fall.
I will squeeze my thigh hard
when you turn to go,
but I won’t reach out
to pull you back.
I’m no hero.
There was that night-
can you recall?
when you confessed to me
you could not quite dunk the ball
(was that you? my memory is so bad)
and I told you there were so many other things you were good at
but you insisted-
if I could only know the feeling-
just once...
(do you remember this?
it was so long ago)
so I dug through my closet
and found my wing-ed shoes
(neither of us will ever spar
with Bruce Lee)
and we walked to the park
and looked up at the net
I can do this, you said
(that was you, right?)
and I laced up your shoes
in the moonlight
while you stared at that
high-above basket
with the jaunty determination
of a 4 year-old
and I watched you walk backwards
into the shadows
so I waited and hoped
until I could hear your footsteps-
running-
and you careened from those shadows
eyes focused and lost
and you ran and ran
until there was no sound
as your feet climbed the air
and that ball went to the place
it was supposed to go
and you sailed over the basket
straight through the atmosphere
back up to Brooklyn
and placed you safe and whole,
and that was the last time
I saw you.
I Ka-reem,
You Ka-reem,
We All Ka-reem...
JS.
Thank you Joanna, Olis, Anon, Kimberly, Janice, Jenny and JS. You all made my day. I needed that.
I put my poem for you on my blog!
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