After William Pope.L*

-for Tyrone Williams on MLK Day

"Therefore this sort of theorizing/deodorizing
Could only come from someone
Who believes in having things
As a political condition

Conversely, this theory
Could only come from someone
Who lacks something
As a political condition."
-William Pope.L, from Hole Theory

Where you have dented me
White balls, black balls, blue
Balls wailing… bailing-out a hole
In theory (hole theories)—social

action gives the imagination a
reason to get up in the morning—
No other wastes except for this
Remaining common what bubbles

qua “strength”—discrepancy,
Contradiction, misunderstanding—
Or conditions of posse-bility—
the energy of predicament, make

it my pet, my posey, my theory—
no remorsey—ghosts lay
Claim to every little weiner
Nailed to your map of the United

States indicating a delay-time in
Reparations, decay of ordinary
Materials—Peanut Butter presence,
Mayonnaise Phallus smeared to

Those places we can't be because
There will be no “rememory” just
The future anterior—a lack worth
having—puts vaginas back in

Men, since certain images can
Only propose foreclosure there
Should be new spectacles “white
eschatology” (cf. W. Benjamin)

That milk too late for paradise
The angel in these bones, in the
Boner tipping the balance—
an angel cannot be late but man,

made of flesh and blood, can
be late—cues a light of reason
Non-sense has a cause seeing
Won’t transcend determining art.

*all italicized text from William Pope.L: the Friendliest Black Artist in America, except for "an angel cannot be late...," from MLK's April 3rd, 1968 sermon "I've Been to the Mountaintop," cited in American Sermons: The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King Jr.