breaks the pattern of pre-
fixes and suffixes not taking
the stress:
[in-fuh-muhs]
which makes me think:
muh-fuhs
as in what you muh-fuhs
lookin at?
which could have been an infamous
last question, given
that those muh-fuhs
stared at me all the hard-rockier
and took a few steps till I broke
into a shit-teeth grin
saying, aw, go ahead,
look all you like,
she—see, they wuz lookin at
us fighting—she and me—and
she—how many witnesses do you need
to call it infamous?—
sez, what YOU lookin at
when I look at her
with my scarecrow shrug
while my Greek chorus
on the street howls and hoots
waving their tattoos and gang signs
in a patriotic display
and she gets in the car
and waits for her last
ride home from me—
we didn’t even finish the fight.
An infamous quote can be one
where you predict the future
and you’re dead dry-bone wrong
so when I dropped her off and said see
ya later, the door slammed behind her,
whiplashing my words right back at me—
where’s the chorus when you need them?
Back on the corner miles away
near the bad movie of our fight—
thumbs down, no stars, bomb, bomb, bomb,
or so I imagine, my Bible of Shame
burning in my hands like a bush, talking
in the tongues of the infamous.
