Wednesday July 13th - 4:55AM

i've been up for an hour so i'm a little punchy, but i had a chance to check out rigoberto gonzalez's feature at acentos last night and he was awesome. go to his website and buy everything he has written. that's all i can figure to say about that right now...

thanks too to all the folks who gave me so much love on the HBO airing. to the young lady who commented that saul looks up to me, i don't know about that but i do know that he was very influential and (at the risk of being hokey) inspirational to me when i first started writing again. he's also been a very genuine human being in talking to him about writing and all art and stuff... (i'm saying things like "and stuff", i must be tired). still, i'm glad you liked the work though. at the end of the day, that's the thing that drives me most, that frightens me most - does my work mean? does it matter?

ragan fox was also really good on Monday at Bar 13. I'll have more to say later, when i can get to the wine bar, the one with internet access down the street from my house. okay... let me attempt a free write poem thingie straight onto blog...

we never spoke of it
the games we were cheated
and especially not the ones
in which we were cheated for

but we knew
when we'd have to lose limb
to get a foul called
and what games we'd be barely touched
before we heard the whistle
for our free kicks

the darker our opponents
the better chance we had
and all across our team
we were a rag-tag bunch
of browns and yellows and whites
not yet American, white

We came from Peru and trinidad
Grenada and Bosnia
Brazil and Serbia
Mexico, Jamaica, Ecuador, Croatia, Nigeria

the white boys from jersey
from Long Island
from Connecticut
got all the calls
we could get the calls against

the other city schools
the ones with Africans and West Indians
medgar Evers College
Baruch College
York College
we got those calls
they were always darker skinned
and played angry

they frightened those of us
not willing to claim black
but we beat them
almost every time
we never spoke of it
it was always only about the football
and we were too busy licking
our own wounds...

so... i've got mad work to do on this piece. it may be altogether useless, even. see you at the wine bar...