Enjoy these poems and please email the poets (where applicable) and give them some feedback!

HOTLANTA SUITE
==============

       chocolate city
     [a hotlanta melody]


chocolate city
people playing
Underground
and over me

rings of water
flags of color
children singing
happily

skytall buildings:
coca cola
cnn's still
tellin lies

olympic torches
sidewalk vendors
playa's with
alibis

poets niche'ers
walt & moni
gus, james & tasha t
david & lisa
robyn & mocha
big rose, kat &saleem

friends & fam'ly
here, uplifting:
rod, crystal &trish
bur & lisa
stopped to see me;
now they'll all be missed

we came together
for a purpose:
hey, "come into our whirl!"
just a start
of something bigger;
we've discovered
a Black Pearl...

chocolate city
feel aiiight here;
you inspired
this wee poem

chocolate city
sweet, sweet city
think i'll make you
my new home


/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com

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       atlanta characters

an old man
scrapes his way
down the street.
money burning a hole
in my pocket,
i pause in Thought
as i slurp on my
icy refreshment.
i cannot ignore him.

i turn and ask
if a dollar would help
[help what? not sure. didn't want to know, really.]
his answer is unintelligible,
but i give it anyway.

another man stubs his
cigarette into the ground
with no thought of whether the ground
was ready or able to receive such treatment.
then he says, "God will bless you for that, lady".

all well and good, i suppose
but i notice that he
makes no such tithe.

/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com

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      help wanted: locs ok

joy
inexplicable delight
fills my eyes

i must've died
and entered a
chocolate fantasyland

    locs here,
    locs there
    damn! i'm seein locs
    everywhere!

locs at work--no apology necessary
(hadta stop myself from
 reaching up and
 playin in the waiter's hair)

locs at play--all up in the Underground!
everywhere i turn, locs surround me.
and if not locs, then [ooooweee!]
beautiful bal'headed blackness.

yeah, i know it's chocolate city,
vibrant, ALIVE, chocolate city,
but damn!  where y'all been?
hmmm...damn! where've *i* been?

and how can i get back here, soonest?!?

/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com

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      let's make some Black Noize!
             (for Walt)

"There's too much white noise in here!"
hmmmm...

can't get nothin done
with all these distractions
so let us fill the hall
with sounds of
Black Folk at work
Black Folk at play
Black Folk on a mission
to get the job done

Black Noize
uplifting sounds
Black Noize
pens scratchin against paper
(Virtual and real)
Black Noize
sounds of a People,
who have it
goin on...

/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

       our griot speaks
        ["FANtastic!"]

sit quietly, olu.
hear our griot
as he speaks to us.
olu, he says
that we can do anything:
he leaves us with Hope.

squat with him now, olu
and hear his wisdom
as he tells us
that we have greatness within,
ready to be unleashed...

hear him, olu! as i do
when he tells us
that we create our own reality
by our words;
speak carefully.

did you hear him?
when he told us--
as his Amen--
   "FANtastic!"

i heard him, olu.

did you?


/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

      a conversation on the journey back


i don't talk to God enough
    and that ain't right

i only beg
when i find myself
hurtling down a curvy mountain pass
at 1000 miles per hour
in the rain
on a bike with no windshield wipers
and little tolerance for error

or when i know i'm
failing that class again
or when my deadline has passed
and i'm still nowhere near done
or when the wretched tightness of money
is about to choke me to death

only then do i find my voice
    and that ain't right

my conversations with Him
begin and end with
    i know i haven't
and
    but if You bring me through this

knowing--albeit, unintentionally--
that i'll drop Him like a hot potato
soonas my thirst is slaked.
even though He caught that
lightning bolt that was
headed my way.
and He put up His Umbrella
as i was
hurtling down a curvy mountain pass
at 1000 miles per hour
in the rain
on a bike with no windshield wipers
and little tolerance for error

my conversations with Him
are done at my convenience
when i need Just One More Thing
Just This Once, Ok?

never considering that
He might want a friend
to talk to, too

i use God as needed
a pinch or two
and put Him back on the spice rack when i'm done

    and that ain't right

/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

      a rose for monilove

here is a rose for you, my dear--
   petals and thorns, a token of our love
   for our monilove...


a petal for your hard work
your dedication
your will to make this dream, this thing,
a reality

a petal for being
the friendly helpful person
the light guiding us here, now

a petal for devotion
  to family of blood
  to family of words
  to walt (the hardest working man on the web)
  to dreams

and thorns--
      "[how can you appreciate the good without the bad?]"
--the times when you didn't know how/when/where/who
     but it came to be, any ol' way
--the times when we jus' wouldn't get right
     but it came to be, any ol' way
--the times when the money was too tight to mention
     but it came to be, any ol' way
--the times when It Just Could Not Be Done
     but it came to be, any ol' way.


here is a rose for monilove
our monilove
a small token of our love, our affection
always.

/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com