<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Nina’s Blues</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Your body, hard vowels<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">In a soft dress, is still.<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">What you can't know<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">is that after you died<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">All the black poets<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">In New York City<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Took a deep breath,<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">And breathed you out;<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Dark corners of small clubs,<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">The silence you left twitching<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">On the floors of the gigs<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">You turned your back on,<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">The balled-up fists of notes<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Flung, angry from a keyboard.<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">You won't be able to hear us<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Try to etch what rose<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Off your eyes, from your throat.<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Out you bleed, not as sweet, or sweaty,<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">Through our dark fingertips.<br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">We drum <i class="">rest</i><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">We drum <i class="">thank you</i><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">We drum <i class="">stay</i>.</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Cornelius Eady</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></body></html>