[the Writing of Kuypers]
you know, I’m so used to
and I sat down, and I started to read
and I started to think that I’d actually
and then I put my lipstick on in the
[JanetKuypers.com][Bio][Poems][Prose]
the bathroom at the Green Mill
walking into bathrooms at bars
and seeing “I love Scott” and
“I think I love Paul, but I think I love girls”
scribbled on the stalls in ink
but I went into the bathroom at the
Green Mill on the north side of Chicago
which hosts the Uptown Poetry Slam
while a black woman read poetry
about oppression and plantations and slavery
(which sounded more like a speech,
but I won’t get into that)
and I walked into the bathroom, into
a stall, I closed the door, and I saw
some writing, and I thought, oh,
I bet this writing actually has something
to say, I bet there’s poetry up on these walls
and I saw “I love Scott” and
“I think I love Paul, but I think I love girls”
like to meet the people that write these messages
and I’d like to ask them,
“Hey, are you still with Brian? Because
when it said “Jeanie and Brian Forever"
on the bathroom stall at the Green Mill
I wanted to know if it was really true
if I can still believe everything I read
and if there was a happy ending for you”
bathroom at the Green Mill in Chicago
heard the black woman’s voice resonating
throughout the bar, thought for a mament
about what was on the walls and walked away
Copyright Janet Kuypers.
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