They Will Sew the Blue Sail

Gas Flag, Sly Stone, Charlottesville Summer | Tobi Kassim

in the zone’s imaginary war found the image

of war was surprise surrender, an over-stimulus

  package of floating flower. framed

corner grenade in fire in time. who knew

black paint was orange like that when

you improvise a match. riot came and taught

taggers to color with fire, hiss for pain not to

be a weapon, roar for weapons that don’t mean

pain. fluid at once and masked protection –

he was that muffled retaliation, icons up for mutilation,

that conversation which failed to note

                          how the failure to create music is nothing

less than its own music was the only failure. sung

writing and strung writing wrong differently and sand

different edges of the zone’s militarized jaw. brick

machine’s offense is your pleasure in the sweetedged grind

between what they hear and how it would sound if

they could hear and how raw it is to say what you said

so not to be heard.

                                      only music can enact its own

mutiny, motherfucker, the world when the one turns

on the microphone but wears a mute.