You climb out of bed, put on a tee-shirt, sweat pants and a ball cap
Walk to the corner store, buy coffee in a Styrofoam cup
Lady at the counter tells you to zip up
Instinctively, you reach down and zip your pants
She barks you could have turned around to zip your pants
You reply she had already seen you unzipped
She calls you rude
Trying to keep peace, you turn to leave
She raises her voice - your Zappa shirt is ugly, too
You turn back around and ask if she ever washes her shirt
Halfway home, you realize sweat pants don't have zippers, go back
Tell her you're sorry that you argued over non-existent zippers
She says it'd been a bad day and she apologizes, too
You realize she is naked from the waist up and ask about her shirt
She tears up, says it was filthy so she took it off to make you happy
You take off Zappa, tell her to put him on
She turns it inside out, puts Zappa next to her skin
You laugh and say that will make Zappa smile
Hand her a napkin from the sandwich display to wipe her eyes
She says quietly she gets off at 8
Back in bed, you wake from your dream, get up
And look for Zappa in the dirty laundry on the floor
The Jasper Project thanks board member Al Black for generously sharing his poetry with our readers. Watch for more in the Al Black Jasper Project Poetry Series in days and weeks to come.
Al Black is a writer, poet, host, and social activist. He is the author of two poetry collections, I Only Left For Tea (2014) and Man With Two Shadows (2018) and he co-edited, Hand in Hand, Poets Respond to Race (2017) and his work has been published in several anthologies and periodicals. Contact Al Black at albeemindgravy@gmail.com.
BOOMERPEDIA: FRANK ZAPPA
Frank Zappa was a multi-instrument musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and filmmaker. A penultimate non-conformist, Zappa injected satire into his art as his musical virtuosity spanned genres and decades. The enigmatic artist often juxtaposed sophomoric humor against cerebrally complex musical compositions and was heavily influenced by the dissonant sounds of composer EDGARD VARESE who he idolized as a child. With his band, MOTHERS OF INVENTION, the self-taught Zappa released more than 60 albums. One of the greatest guitarists of all time (Rolling Stone ranked him #22/100 in 2011) Zappa gave us the concept of PROJECT/OBJECT, or CONCEPTUAL CONTINUITY which means that he connected musical themes and phrases across albums, essentially making the whole of his life’s creative output one large project. In a March 1986 episode of CROSSFIRE, Zappa warned that the United States was on the road to becoming a “fascist theocracy.” Zappa was married to Gail Sloatman Zappa from 1966 until his death from cancer at the age of 52 in 1993. Their children are Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva. - Cindi Boiter