"Open Mic Nite" by Mark Anthony Thomas

OPEN MIC NITE

the guys usually come
tight--- but the women can use

that nite to vent on how men did
them wrong, how daddy was always gone
& how their heart now belongs

to the broken template of what love
should've been. but then again

when the jazz starts-a-playin’
& you're feelin’ what the artists are saying

does it really matter what's being
said if the soul food being fed

can fill the appetite for strength & power?
& even those in their deepest hour---

can share their words with your mind & you'll
compare their words, to your words

to try to find a better way to free
the emotions you want to say---

in a more creative (yet mellow) way,
so when you embrace the mic on a future day,

the audience can see how you've advanced
to the next phase of your writing skills---

for you have to prove to yourself that you'll
stand & be respected for your literary expertise---

still relating to the "deep" at heart
while letting them know that a major part of
who you are
who you like to be
who they will now see as "me"
is
poetically
intellectually
theoretically incline.