we did not choose each other
on that underground Wednesday night
Harlem dance floor.
We were chosen
instinct on spin cycle: knee, washboard, tongue
spliced cross 12 inches of a spirit-filled
I Get Lifted, oh /
I Get Lifted, yeshouse songhearts sweated like rain,
smiles crackling their fire spit across
our language barrier.
We found ourselves in anthema juke joint east of Lenox Lounge
become a pop-up lion’s den stage right
of the dance floor; frot hands hung
to the top side of the table hunting
like pheromones of spontaneously combusted
paramours. Time lost and barely, barely found
I remember next. I do not remember
before coat check northand a train ride
and an address I called home
and a passion felt like God and Sun,
primordial hot three-letter wordsgatewayto Four. We tattooed ourselves lips-first
to the front door, the morning sun an elbow
prodding us together and apart—a part
together as we tried not to leave against
our will.
POEMS
I Get Lifted Oh, The Atlantic
Calculus I, II, III, Poets.org
Amphibia, Wordpeace
They Crowned Him: Elegy to Kalief Browder, African Voices
above or below, About Place Journal
Naked, About Place Journal
the Coloring, About Place Journal
Cyborg Heaven, Wordpeace
POETRY COLLECTIONS
EVERY WHERE ALIEN, Amistad Poetry & Moore Black Press
“ Every Where Alien is a book that asks for interaction and understanding. These poems take seriously the fact of a living, breathing, and loving reader: “Put them in your music/Add them to the score.” Brad Walrond defies aesthetic boundaries to write the poems that only he could write, poems that travel time and space for a truth that is sometimes painful and always necessary.”
—Jericho Brown, author, The Tradition 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winner, Poetry jerichobrown.com
John Giorno Octopus Series: Performance Space New York City
POETRY + PERFORMANCE
Every where alien live performance at Friday Night Feature Nuyorican Poets Cafe