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INTERVIEW / WAX POETICS

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A NOTE / ON THE TITLE, LET IT RIDE

Let It Ride was a skate shop in suburban Kansas City in the 1990s. When I was getting into things like music and hanging out at 12 and 13, skateboarding was king. Though I came to many of the associated styles of a 13-year-old suburban skateboarder naturally, I still could not olly–or skate whatsoever–to save my life. Having to accept that inadequacy was fine, and reduced any sort of pressure about “being cool.” As an adult, “being cool” has infinitely more diverse meanings, for instance where keeping cool is more about life challenges than the perceptions of others or self. Keeping cool as f*ck is just fine, then, and this blog is a kind of skating practice nevertheless . . .

SONNET / KANSAS LANDSCAPE 1

WATER TOWER MOUTHS

Yes. And we shall have a blowout, poised at
the gate, some moonlight pouring across the choices.
And I will say some finding things—a voice that
is scooped so deeply by open hands’ choices.
Our flesh as grass that reaches to grow around
our eyes who look—and through—to pierce and slash
these folds of weather draped among our towns,
the names atop the water tower in flashes.
And for us—maybe me alone—to stick
our tongues so far out, the water straining
and landing there: a yes shall bleed and need the tick
of talking blood in hearts, a root for a vein.

But we with festering lackings—a tainting teat—
have lives, awash in the cryptic, wedded to repeat.

LET IT RIDE RIDE / COPYRIGHT JAMES WELLS 2011

POEM / KANSAS LANDSCAPE 2

LOCAL EIGHT-YEAR-OLD DECIMATES CROP WITH SINGLE FIRECRACKER

Our highway driving, fields and squared, assigned
selves in passing, bare rush of drivers’ views
quickened by terrain not traversed afoot, only
mind steps that near the fencing around want.

We never walk off into this lining expanse—
as the wind out here augments the furrows, a rich
and tactile feeling of opened progress, soil, a found
destination in why we are driving at all. The taste of
the asphalt’s grains begins to thin; our faces level with dusk.

Barefoot, a subtle yes. Please, a lie with me, here,
the waters edged by come, moons of honey, and outstretched arms
with fingers for roots. What reinforced perception crests,
floods out all of its naturally eroding paths,
into our field, that field, a field. The car buried in soft
topography, we can appreciate the weather, decay.

LET IT RIDE RIDE / COPYRIGHT 2011 JAMES WELLS

FIRST GIG / BOOTED

Circa August, 2007: I had my first gig Saturday night. My friend DC was the headliner, and he had me out to help, get waters, cover on breaks, and make some PA-like cash. It was the kind of club where model-types and bottle service are the norm. The arrayed tables were 10″ off the ground, and walking anywhere, with purpose or not, proved dangerous. To make things worse, it was so packed inside that, quickly, I could feel the line lengthening around the block outside.

A few bars into the first song, some “Jason” strolled angrily into the futuristic dj booth. Distracted, he talked to himself with soft venom in mumbles, smoking and texting, and finally blurted exaggeratedly, “What is this.” Dude’s beard had to of come in a can.

DC said, “The Emulations on Emulate. Did you not know what music I was going to do?”

Jason was so displeased that he simply left our immediate space, only to linger nearby.

After some passive-aggressive hovering, up next with the dubious managerial staff was Anastasia, a girl trying to be so attractive she became unattractive. She promptly stomped in the little space about how we were going to be replaced. Really, she was just freaking out–”I can’t understand!”–that we were not playing early German techno with electro B-boy leanings, or some even more gross genre phrasing.

Sure enough, we were booted before we could finish the meager stack of drink tickets. Our replacement, a NY / CHI model of some party repute, had her well wishes: “Thanks for the dusty grooves!”

We got paid the full amount, and then had drinks in a Uke Village dive late into the night. I got lost on the 10-minute walk home. The check for services rendered eventually bounced.

Let it ride ride / COPYRIGHT 2011 JAMES WELLS