Explore "Pronounced Fantasy" by Maxwell Bodenheim on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ A negro girl with skin / As black as a psychic threat, / And plentiful swells of blonde hair, / Sat at a badly tuned piano / And vanquished her fingers upon the keys. / A midnight exultation / Fastened itself on her face, / Quivering over the shrouded prominence / Of her lips and nose. / Her dress was pink and short, / And hung upon her tall, thin body, / Like a lesson in buffoonery. / She lectured her heart on the piano / With violence of minor chords.
/ Her voice was a prisoner / Whose strong hands turned the bars of his cell / Into musical strings. / _Wen' tuh Houston, tuh get mah trunk, / Did'n get mah trunk, but ah got dam' drunk. / Well, ahm satisfi-i-ied / Cause ah gotta be-e-e-ee._ / The negro girl turned and cursed / With religious incision / At a parrot in a white spittoon. / He pampered his derision / While she played another tune. / Then he saw her long blonde hair / And paused in the midst of his squawk.