spectrum rap
there’s this graffiti
art called SPECTRUM at the Y
half a-room white the-other-half
a riot
of red/blue/green spray-paint over Margaret Mahy
a rhyming dictionary
a coca-cola can i show
my teenage son a tag <shake city>
his ear-buds rap the world’s
a ghetto of guns n picket signs
the wind can cry now
he lets it runthrough his pores black-voice disaffection
from America huh yeah
he wearstheir gold chains and rhythms
i lean towards him from the other side like a ghost
bleaching in and out crying
let me touch u
yeah huh it’s Kendrick Lamar he says
i saw him on Youtube i answer strategically giving
to Amnesty International iconceal thoughts of dollar-dollar
consumerism rap videos i’ve watched over his shoulder
and the undulating black women
in 10 Feet from Stardom backup singers
we hum to not knowing their names he
won’t know their names how far
the sound has come a long tube of
white noise between usand white male
and white malearchitects behind this colour despite the content isn’t it strange
my son how the disaffected inspire themwith i was here tagged on skateboard ramps at Wash and i lied
it’s not just a blank wall by Tilt but
juxtaposition have u seen it before how the women wail to<SALE ENDS TODAY>? perhaps
this ululation of an old generation’s
images in new packages
comes from living
at the end of a shaken earth i turn and
in my dreaming
he’s gone to the next room
when i catch up he lifts his chin says
it’s sick G smilesand amid the scrawled colour I wanna rap it
Biography Gail Ingram
Gail Ingram writes poetry and short stories, which have appeared in Takahe, Fineline, NZ Poetry, Cordite Poetry Review and Flash Frontier among others. She has been placed in various competitions including the 2013 Takahe Short Story and the BNZ Literary Award Flash Fiction competitions. She is the immediate past president of the 'South Island Writers Association', and is currently doing her Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University.
