A Poem Performed: Ignition (Remix)

This is my poem, performed.

I do hope you'll read along below.

Simply,

Spirit

© Sister Shaman

Picture it:

Charles Addams Fine Arts

darkroom,

University of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia, PA.

...

It's a strange feeling

when,

after spending weeks with

the aux chord

in your tyrannical grip,

blasting

Rock 'n roll,

Indie,

real ~cool~ shit,

you're greeted with

"I have a surprise for you"

and

"You're gonna love this."

The feeling's strange

cuz

whotheFUCK gave him the aux chord?

(Though what you mean to think is,

'I've never been surprised.'

That is--

'No boy has ever thought to surprise me.')

Now,

you've spent months trying to surprise *him*

with your knowledge of ~The Scene,~

playing Beach House, The XX, Florence and the Machine...

So when R. Kelly's remix to "Ignition" plays,

Now I'm not tryna be rude/but hey pretty girl/I'm feelin' you--

You're proper surprised!

So surprised,

your face contorts,

a grimace of sorts--

like you smell something rotten,

something awful and forgotten--

like if you don't get air STAT,

b*tch you gone die!!

You wonder why he thought you would love

the remix to "Ignition."

Of course, everyone loves the remix to "Ignition,"

but why did he think you would?

You ain't nevah played no song as colored as DAT.

I mean, there *was* Miguel's "Quickie,"

but it was over so quickly

one could barely note it.

And there *was* D'Angelo, but...

you know...

So.

Your tastes are different,

more worldly--

refined.

Cane sugar

sweet.

Why did he think--

how did ke know

you

and this song go waaaaay back

like black on crack,

red tears down Mamie's back--

back into a blackness so deep,

you find you can't speak,

can't breathe,

and if you don't get air STAT--

...

He kills the song

suddenly,

severed,

a fragment of all you used to be.

Silently

you both continue

as you silently curse

your feet,

rooted in a gunk so deep,

this time you couldn't speak.

Roots once forgotten,

abandoned and rotten,

ignited

by "Ignition"

(the remix), of course.

Picture it.