Feature Poet:
Louis Benjamin

What it's all about

Back in the day when Jimi was a Timex- still tickin'
we couldn't deal with the licks he was dishin'
-Politics in listenin' before PC ever meant computer
(never mind correctness).
Meanwhile I was rockin' steady with Miss 'Retha,
even took a little trip and got a little too high on Stevie...
Curtis brought me Back in the World, just in time
to hear Cosmic Slop drippin' from somewhere else.
I was pre- funkin' with Isaac Hayes, the Black Moses,
that bad mother- shut- your- mouth
who was jammin' those keys and beggin' her to walk on by...
while the town I called home was into
The Guess Who, The Who, and Miss American Pie.
I felt the Earth, Wind, and Fire, I smelled the Smoke
that puffed from the Ohio Players' horns.
I saw my sexy cousins' hips shake and sway
while James screeched and belted "Sex Machine!"
And even though sex was already on the map
when Marvin showed- up, he stuck a pin in it,
drew a big red circle around, and took us all the way down
to brass tacks. Yeah, come on distant lover, let's get it on...

Banished

Maxwell's stuck in the CD again?
such a good place for him,
so long as I can get him to play.
Seems like everything breaks;

Surrounded by stuff to fix.

Wanna wave my hand and fix it all, llike it's nothin'
The richest country in the world, and still shit's broken.
Shit breaks, tha's the reality.
The myth is having everything working,

like in the state of Pristene? The land of perpetual bubble wrap.

The candle is brand- new and you don't wanna light it.
The cake looks so good, you can't bring yourself to cut it.
The car smells new for a couple weeks, and then forget it.
But the thing I hate most, is

the first scratch? that first blemish.

The moment when you know it's not new anymore.
The one that cuts deeper than any other.
You can't drive this car into Pristene,
they'll never let you in?

You've been banished once again.