Prince and a Poetry Reading

Let’s paint the whole world purple:
This leafy quinoa wrap,
These translucent watermelons,
White cheeses, soda pop,

Every fountain
Should be filled
With ping-pong balls,
All sputtering in time to
“Let’s Go Crazy”

5, 6, 7, 8,

If I have to build a wall
Give me symbols and purple brick,
If I have to dive into the ocean
Let the waters run royal,

Noble motorcycles
Ought to flare lilac flames,
Every child in a
blue crushed velvet suit.

Let’s skip this reading
And dance, love,
Forget the woods, the spidery nectarines,
Forget your ancestral fears,

Let’s have starfish and coffee,
Feel kingly rain on our skin,
Scrub the dead off our lips,
Get them ready to kiss.

Oh, no,
Let’s go,
Let’s take off
Our clothes,

Let’s give our mouths a rest
And sing our fantasies
To regal gods
On butterscotch clouds
In parks of paisley.

Let’s throw our electrics
Into the wild wind,
Watch the once free hands
Of angels wrestle and slide
Them into the afterworld,
A world of witty waitresses,

Where real men order fruit cups,
And Questlove spins possessed
By the ghost of his father
Outta club “Do It All Night”

I am a raspberry woman,
Let’s get nuts.