Going Through Gotham
Written around 2008 while living and working in Harlem to prepare for my first solo art exhibition in New Your City.
Here is where I curl and swirl On the rocks of green and gray On the ripple of water That smells like fish ~ Sweet and savory. Here is where sirens whirl Where scenes manipulate a poet's mind Where it curls and swirls and ripples Sweet and savory ~ Like fish rocks. Here by the green and gray water. No time to look for time in a bottle A note in a bottle Booze in a bottle None of that tired old City swinging Jazz for me Bottles are unnecessary When you drink with your eyes Saving your lips only for kissing So... won’t you excuse me then... If I jump up and try to kiss the sky. These days... Not a Rockefeller in sight But I know where You can rock a fella! Down in Hell’s Kitchen Down 25th Street - Chelsea Down Greenwich You keep going down, down, down Then... down around the tip of the bullring Boo Yah! You see her there. She’s been waiting for you. Open Says Me!!! She says it’s me... That she’s been waiting to see She say "Come on in baby" Come on in, throw your dice, Try to make it It's gonna get hard But you might make it just the same So you make it up the east side Up the Lower East side Up where the village babes Pull up the bordello streets Just to move you Tell me baby What’s it that grooves you Zip-bop-bam! Ala-ka-zam! Aint no Dutch left now In new Amsterdam We’re just a bunch of mutts here Strutting mutts that swag and sway We zip and zap underground In tin can lighting bolts We zig and zag up top In canary yellow ladybugs With Arabian names Puttering around Mondrian grids Under the gaze of a zillion electric eyes. Just a bunch of cool and chic freaks Who glide and slide And ride this ride All the time...night and day All the time... night and day All the time... wishing for home. Home... Home where the heart is. Yeah man, that’s where it is... So we keep seeking out the Wiz We keep pulling Our left foot up Just to earn our right to get down. (Lord it aint easy somedays To ease on down this road.) You feel sick from eating The apple everyday You need to see a doctor right away A witch doctor A voodoo man A shaman A black man A white man A red man A yellow man A brown man A woman A human? You need to see the doctor right away But that will cost you...man. It’s gonna cost you A cool nickel Jack And even when you pay Ring ! Ring ! Bling! Bling! The doctor aint motherlovin’ in today But yall come on back tomorrow The good folks will let you pay To try ... to try again. Bip-bop-bam! Al-a-kazam! Only if I keep moving Will I ever feel safe enough to land. So I move my visions and words From that creek In the Appalachian backwoods Here to the sweet green And savory shade of gray That curls and swirls on The banks of the Hudson Where fish rocks tickle your toes While your pen Tickles infinity on the page. And... You wonder out loud (While Nina Simone sings About lilac wine) If anything is ever exactly Like it seems in your dreams And... You pray out loud A little prayer of thanks For those days you get to live Live close to your dreams. And... You strip down naked For all the New Jersey shore to see From their shoebox skyboxes You lay back on the fish rocks Flash a big ole grin Thinking how warm the sun feels. Finally... warm hits you up again On your winter worn, frozen cold skin Every day you rise up To do it all over again And... just then... You wonder whose imagination your living and remember the lies you tell yourself to pretend you’re happy here.
My Other Places, Other Frames
My Culture Futurist Substack Site for Business, Innovation & Future of Work
Personal Website: Culture Futurist
About the Author
Theo Edmonds, Culture Futurist® & Founder, Creativity America | Bridging Creative Industries and Brain Science with Future of Work & Wondervation®
©2021-2025 Theo Edmonds | All Rights Reserved. This article contains proprietary intellectual property. Any reproduction, distribution, or adaptation, in whole or in part, is prohibited without explicit written permission from the author. Please attribute content accurately when referenced or shared. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of any affiliated organization or institution.