REWORK OF POEM written for February 10, 2013
Prince
The BET Awards brings
Prince to the stage and we sit
up, pay attention to the tenor
of his voice, his sultry eyes
and funkadelic way he makes us
want to know what is right
before us, but mysterious
We are arguing about whether
the one always to be known as
Prince--the Purple one who rains
down sexually charged songs;
make us long for the vision
of a lover with a dirty mind;
the Symbol of human desire--
whether his androgyny comes
from the devil, or whether he is
a god-touched gift of a human
two-spirited in the way some
Native American tribes describe
whether he wears all humanity
inside him, because people
show up in the world in
more than binary ways
even if we'd deny it
I wonder how people not
attractive or attracted to
Prince to the stage and we sit
up, pay attention to the tenor
of his voice, his sultry eyes
and funkadelic way he makes us
want to know what is right
before us, but mysterious
We are arguing about whether
the one always to be known as
Prince--the Purple one who rains
down sexually charged songs;
make us long for the vision
of a lover with a dirty mind;
the Symbol of human desire--
whether his androgyny comes
from the devil, or whether he is
a god-touched gift of a human
two-spirited in the way some
Native American tribes describe
whether he wears all humanity
inside him, because people
show up in the world in
more than binary ways
even if we'd deny it
I wonder how people not
attractive or attracted to
men and women or
gender bending
male-and-female and more
can be so sure about
what God intends
when Prince is on the earth
libation bearer, dancing many
souls whole
souls whole
how the saints can declare
he's demented or degraded
or that angels are confused--
or that angels are confused--
like seraph guardians wouldn't know
how to help a human who sings
a different key and dances a different
mix of salsa and waltz and twist
not man or woman but both
how these pharisees know so much
of what God can stomach, that
God would ignore the creature
a different key and dances a different
mix of salsa and waltz and twist
not man or woman but both
how these pharisees know so much
of what God can stomach, that
God would ignore the creature
that resembles the first one created
"Male-and-Female" earthling
that God split into
to get the man and woman
version of humanity
How can you be so sure?
© Valerie Bridgeman
February 17, 2013 (reworked from poem below)
I needed this lazy
this "don't think about" time
this mindless TV watching,
and arguing online over whether
Prince's androgyny comes
from the devil or whether
he is in fact one of the
two-spirited ones the
Native Americans speak of
and would never call evil or demonic
because people show up
in the world in more than binary ways
even if we'd like to deny it
or hope it would
disappear
and I wonder how
people who have never
found themselves attractive or attracted to
men and women or
gender bending people who are
male-and-female and more
can be so sure about these things
about what God intends
when Prince is on the earth
pouring words over it and
dancing the souls of many to
wholeness
and how the saints can declare
it's degradation or that
angels are confused--
like they wouldn't know
whether or how to help
a human being who doesn't
perform the socially accepted
dance of "man" or "woman"--
that God would just ignore the creature
that resembles the first one created
"Male-and-Female" earthling
that God split into
to get the man and woman
version of humanity
How can you be so sure?
© Valerie Bridgeman
February 10, 2013
DRAFT/needs work
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