Beyond Words
--Kevin Young 

.......Mudd Club 4th floor gallery
.......Manhattan, April 1981 

If you bomb
the IND
or tag the 2 

downtown
—gallery-bound—
dousing it in tribal 

shrapnel, you're it
—the shit—
If you can lie 

between the rails
—Please Stand
Clear the Closing— 

or press yourselves
betw. train
& the wall 

spray can rattling
like a tooth—The roof
the roof 

the roof is on
fire—soon
the 6 will whistle 

past, swinging
like a night stick—
Officer Pup throwing 

a brick
@ that Mouse
Ignatz, in love— 

#$!?!!!!—then
you'll have found
risk. A calling— 

Crash, Daze, Pray
covering trains
like cave paintings, 

avoiding the German
shepherds—ACHTUNG—
while the cars sit 

in the yards
—what no one else in this
city owns. Making 

their names
known—Dondi, Boy-
5, B-Sirius, Crazy 

Legs, Coolie C—
The city clears
its throat 

the subway shaking
the buildings above—
We don't need 

no water let
the motherfucker
burn— Futura 2000, 

Phase II, Quick
& Sex & Zephyr
& Lady Pink— 

Fab 5 Freddy
(n� Braithwaite)
saying everyone's 

a star. "Rapture"— 

the whole planet's in
on it—Chilly Most
Being the Host Coast 

to Coast—Freddy's painted
Campbell's Soup Cans that read
DADA & POP instead 

of beef barley—
the UFO has landed
& a brother's 

stepped out, alien, dressed
in white. Then when
there's no more cars 

he goes out at night
& eats up bars—
graffiti like 3 card monte— 

running, avoiding the pigs
like a black muslim
bean pie. DJ spinning 

says my my.
Pay attn.—
say, ain't that 

Basquiat spinning 

disks behind Blondie—
SAMO AS AN END
TO MINDWASH RELIGION— 

45s stacked high
as a Dag-
wood sammich? 

Hungry, this B-
boy's headed
to the top—Yes 

Yes y'all
You don't stop—
blowing up.