"Words' Worth" Poetry Readings
Poets at the Culture, Arts, and Parks Committee
of the Seattle City Council.
Hooked by Coy King
The Angels are hooked.
it is the worst, ever.
sidearmed and knuckleballed
through the pearly gates
beneath the softest of feathers
it has infiltrated the cracks
and seams of the streets of gold.
it has passed from soul to soul
in angelic eyelocks and the subtle brushing
brushing of robes in heavens' markets, cafes
and libraries.
The Angels are absolutely hooked.
It is wet.
It is salty.
It is clear.
It is Tears.
The Angels are hooked on tears.
They are crying for eternity,
uninhibitedly sad.
The Angels have been around forever and they've
never felt like this.
they grew bored
they grew listless
they grew soft
And now,
pain is selling like crack
as they drink its newness in
dizzying gulps
They are strung out
and fighting each other to satisfy their fix
they are creating more.
it is, of course, a contraband trade,
the selling of tears
behind the heavenly father's back.
But,
it seems to go like this:
There was once a woman, a new mother,
who lay dying with her child in her arms.
She pleaded with god to let her
stay with her baby but
he responded by
letting
her
die.
Enraged and destroyed, she was flown to heaven,
weeping, and soon lost her sense of pain.
Her cuffs were wet with tears,
though, and once inside their scent hung
ominously in the air of the holy kingdom.
Somehow, she remembered,
and wept in the arms of Gabriel,
and the tears were passed on,
a disease never so infectious and virulent.
Heaven hasn't been the same ever since.
There are bars in heaven now.
There are weapons in heaven now.
There are feelings in heaven now.
There are cops in heaven now.
There is soot and sludge and trash in heaven now.
And now, for the first time,
they got Punk Rock in heaven now,
they got Hip Hop in heaven now,
they got Jazz in heaven now,
but most importantly,
they got the Blues in heaven now.
You got to have a job to live in heaven now
washing dishes, waiting tables,
all to pay the rent in heaven now.
You got to eat in heaven now.
At night, the Angels roll smokes
and dangle their feet from clouds. They are
precious, young, and sexy,
they got tattoos, heartbreaks and college credit.
And they've got Eternity.
And
they
are
hooked.
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