Open Thread: Retired Magician

Hosted by a magician

My Father Is A Retired Magician

my father is a retired magician

which accounts for my irregular behavior

everythin comes outta magic hats

or bottles wit no bottoms & parakeets

are as easy to get as a couple a rabbits

or 3 fifty cent pieces/ 1958

my daddy retired from magic & took

up another trade cuz this friend of mine

from the 3rd grade asked to be made white 

on the spot

what cd any self-respectin colored american magician

do wit such a outlandish request/ cept

put all them razzamatazz hocus pocus zippity-do-dah

thingamajigs away cuz

colored chirren believin in magic

waz becomin politically dangerous for the race

& waznt nobody gonna be made white

on the spot just

from a clap of my daddy's hands

& the reason i'm so peculiar's 

cuz i been studyin up on my daddy's technique

& everythin i do is magic these days

& it's very colored

very now you see it/ now you

dont mess wit me

i come from a family of retired

sorcerers/ active houngans & pennyante fortune tellers

wit 41 million spirits critturs & celestial bodies 

on our side

i'll listen to yr problems

help wit yr career yr lover yr wanderin spouse

make yr grandma's stay in heaven more gratifyin

ease yr mother thru menopause & show yr son

how to clean his room

YES YES YES 3 wishes is all you get

scarlet ribbons for yr hair

benwa balls via hong kong

a miniature of machu picchu

all things are possible

but aint no colored magician in her right mind

gonna make you white

i mean

this is blk magic

you lookin at

& i'm fixin you up good/ fixin you up good n colored

& you gonna be colored all yr life

& you gonna love it/ bein colored/ all yr life/ colored & love it

love it/ bein colored/

Spell #7 from Upnorth-Outwest Geechee Jibara Quik Magic Trance Manual for Technologically Stressed Third World People 

Ntozake Shange

Happy Sunday, everyone.  I know this is out of order, but it dawned on me today that this Friday was the second Friday in a row with NO self-promotion open thread.  I didn't even have a good excuse for this one!

Naturally, this will not do.  So here, have an unscheduled, make-up, Sunday open thread for shameless self- and- others-promotion!  Share what you've been writing, reading, drawing, creating, watching, etc.!  (Normal rules do apply, be aware!)

...also because I read this poem and it's stuck with me for about a week or so, so I kinda needed to share it.

~ Kristycat