Peanut takes a walk


A Sonnet

I was walking in the Bronx the other day

by Peter’s Golden Egg and Jumpin’ Jax;

I was movin’ slow and beggin’ for a j

when a man I knows strut from the railway tracks.

Now me, babe, I ain’t never took surprised;

I let this cat come walking down to me.

But when he stopped and looked me in the eyes,

I knew that while I stared, I could not see.

“Yo, Peanut — wanna little fix?

A little green, some wet, or coke?

Well, ain’t that how you always get your kicks?”

he said, and vanished into smoke.

Well, all this bullshit blew me off my shelf:

The dude I’d seen was no one but myself.

New York City ~ 1979