another’s dream
for one night I appeared in Maryland.
speeding company
back on my hot seat,
window wipers quench asphalt
angel dusts my pocket
deal me in
rock rock
smoke smoke
headlights meet metal combustion
all hollow bodies fragment
barely scratch
my upper cuts
arrested by everyday powers
phony accusations by state infomercial
handcuffs pulling you up by the bootstraps
throw away all keys
dem iron bars ring
people say
!! we are trying to help you !!
why so hard to be the most
insane person
alive?
dangerous times
hanging off
some body words
Aliah Rosenthal is a poet and performer and was conjured up in the primordial soup of the lower east side. He has collaborated with Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, The Lemonheads, David Amram, Harry Smith, Arthur’s Landing, Aaron Neville, Kool and the Gang to name a few and performed at The Poetry Project, Naropa University, Carnegie Hall, Mariinsky Theatre, Bowery Poetry Club, The Nuyorican Cafe Goteborg Stadsbiblioteket and Cornelia Street Cafe. Currently, he advises projects at the Allen Ginsberg Trust and the Ai Weiwei Studio. instagram: @aarosenthal
First published in The Homestead Review 2019
Featured image: photo by Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Brian Graham, captioned: “I sat for Breakfast tea mornings a decade looking out my kitchen window, East 12th Street, NYC, August 18, 1984.”
