go over to one bonafide rojas‘ very own blog and drop him a birthday greeting…

i just wrote some ultra sappy sheet about how he was one of the first latinos i ever seen attack the open mic like a fiend, how he took me under his wing at my first nats, how he gave me a shitty score at my first slam (he was actually quite kind in retrospect), the amazing Q&A we had walking from chelsea to spring lounge last summer that no one ever heard, how he always come through when i need him and all kinds of ‘why dont you two get it over with and get married’ sheet but all you really need to know is that he is one of the people that i would keep paying money to see cuz he is always trying to outdo himself and works the mic as well as anybody in this scene… anybody!

feliz cumpleano, scatta!

:: the yankees delivered some exciting baseball last night. i am
looking for them to get past the twins and crush the dreams of boston
fans, again! how will they do this? pure smoke and mirrors.

no one from the pitching staff has stepped up and even the mighty
mariano is falling down to mortal level and as mo goes- so goes the
yankees.

a-rod has been great in the field and at the bat (not to mention the
fact that in MERCHANDISE alone, the yanks have made good cash) but he
cant pitch and thats what its all gonna boil down to.

i am looking for the astros to ride work horse roger clemens all the
way to the promised land

:: hockey. i know, no one really cares but this is some seriosu shit.
i do not understand why the government does NOT get involved in these
talks. this isnt just a game or even a fourth tier national past
time, this is people’s jobs on the line. i could care less for
billionaire owners and millionare superstars but what about the
hot.dog guy, the beer.guy, the concession stand worker, the waitress
at the watering hole by the garden, the souvenier guys, the LIRR folks
who are employed because of a hockey season? no one gives a hot damn
that these folks, who count on this money coming in, will not be able
to send their kids to college or make payments that need to be made.
in the interim, the lawers and pr staff stay employed and even making
some extra off the misfortune of others. government has to step in
and let owners & players know…
“i dont care who is wronf or who is right- you all sit down and work
this out till you come up with a contract”
of course, this shit aint gonna happen

:: ricky williams. what an ass. f’ing his team over and then seeing
how he can get back in the league. there is a reason why the greeks
burnt the boats- they was winning or dying trying. ricky is a sad
example of the superstar athlete realizing, he aint that super.

:: the nba. the knicks still aint shit. a product of a front office
more interested in selling tickets than winning championships. the
nets are headed in the same direction- i cant see how the city is
gonna give them all these breaks to set up in brooklyn when in three
years this team wouldnt be able to beat Christ the King.

looking forward to shaq vs kobe. i think shaq is THE biggest asshole
in allof sports but kobe trying to use him to justify his arrest last
summer is some low down sheet. kobe, great athlete- lousy human
being. this is the problem of surrounding yourself with sycophants.
poets, take note.

:: nascar. i turn on to this only for the last three laps and the
crashes. better yet said, this is my favorite SportCenter sport- all
highlights and commentary.

:: nyc football. this must be the third sign of the apocalypse or
some shit. the jets AND the giants looking this good? and only
looking to do better? some one hand me my oxygen tank! it’s still ny
sports though and only one thing matters- the big one.

look for the eagles to knock the giants and the jets, well, they’ll be
the jets and lose the last four games of the season. google this
entry later y’all.

love ya like front row seats & cracker jacks!

i have graduated from the full cane walk to the neo pimp limp. i am just happy that i don;t have to make people take baby steps when they are walking with me. that shit is mad embarassing.

the peeps are back from dodge and i am glad that they all had a good time. in retrospect, its a good thing my job kept me away. the gout hit me two years back with some medium swelling of my big toe and the hilly areas were a bitch to trek throug. this year’s new location for dodge, duke farms, was even bigger than their old locale so i could just imagine taking 30 minutes to get aroubd to see one person speak. uggghhh.

everyone has some new form of inspiration and here i am with no muse at the moment. guess ima have to make one appear… and quick!

through it all, i am quite a lucky fellow in that there was quite a nice number of people that were calling me through the weekend seeing how i was feeling and the like. that means the world, y’all. i broke up with someone over the fact that i was all hobbled up and they didnt come visit me. it was one of those “hey, if you dont reach out, how is anyone supposed to reach back?” moments that ended up leaving me more cynical than when i began.

i have a new good luck charm! a jade elephant. this suckah brings back memories. my mom considered them good luck making the apartment look like a safari retreat. there would be elephants of various materials and a myriad of sizes all over the living room and we were under a direct order that the elephants were more important than the lives of two little mischievous kids. hence, if an elephant got damaged, our asses were forfeit. (of course, i ended up getting a couple of beat downs)

i am realizing how little i am actually saying in these posts. there are storms of bonchiche and drama all around me but i am great at keeping a secret (especially if it concerns me) and dont see how any good can come out of dropping a lil secret here or throwing out a random comment there. there is a mad thirst for this shit out there- people want to get inside other peoples lives real fuckin bad but the compulsive in me doesn tstop at just getting the news, i got to find out more. thats when you start getting to the ugly of it. how people are really hurting and how this exterior drama aint shit compared to what goes through their heads before they go to sleep- if they even can go to sleep. you also start finding out that other people have REAL problems that is much deeper than any idle gossip could hope to be.

everybody wants to be the martyr, nobody wants to be the victim. me, i’m just a storyteller. “let him pass, he’s a dreamer”

There may be nothing more self-indulgent than writing an artist statement. Lynne wanted one a few months back and I could not do it.

“My work tries to heal the sick and walk on water.”

“In my poems, I try to get laid as often as possible.”

“Oscar hopes that you really love his poems or else…”

I mean, for real, what the F yo!

Pain is still mah new running buddy but (to quote the poet) ‘we makin’ prohgress’ A new Ace bandage has me at least limping fairly well. I have taken more hot baths in the last week than Cleopatra. I wrote a fairly honest and deep entry last night on Eliel’s Sidekick Ver. 2.0(!) and tried to post it up. It didn’t make it.

The universe says I should remain distant and impersonal on the Blog. Who am I to disagree?

The Acentos crew has another gig this Tuesday. Ima try a different set than Normal in that I am going to switch around the order of the poems and see what happens. I may also throw in Capicu as well. We shall see.

In memorizing Espada’s poems I have realized that I could not write that poem until I have been really struggling for the longest time. It’s a poem from the voice of a soldier that has seen too much but still goes on. I have not seen enough.

I am enjoying how things are falling into place. Three years ago, I thought I had an outside chance to make a Slam team. Then I believed I was ready for uppercase before I really was. Ditto for some feature opportunities. There is a memorable bomb that happened at Swift Bar. Mah boy Tom, who rarely goes to readings, came along with me to this one. When it was over he looked over at me and stumbled on his first four words. “I know. It sucked.” Things are getting into better focus now. Three years and I feel like I can hold my own. Three years from now, Ima look at this entry and laugh.

During a game of Truth or Dare last week I posed the question- What would you say to “the one that got away” if you were to see them again?

Eventually the question was thrown back to me.

“Was it worth it going back to your husband?”

I have a new poem about the other affair that I had. I like it a lot.

Perhaps I’m starting on my introspective phase… Perhaps not.