Until It Ropes Like Okra: Rhymes in the Vernacular

by Don Barbera

Overview

Until it Ropes Like Okra: Rhymes in the Vernacular is a collection of poems filled with slang, street talk, dangling participles, split infinitives, double negatives, double entendres, cursing (cussin' if you're from the Midwest) and just about every offense ever committed against the King's or Queen's English (depending on your point of view). If I do not succeed in making you laugh, embarrassing you, offending you or making you think then I have missed my goal.

Until it Ropes Like Okra started out as a bunch of poems about my experiences in the community where I grew up. It was a time of playing with words, telling outrageous stories and rhyming in classic street-corner fashion. The poems cover a wide gamut, but I tried to limit the selection to poems that related to the Black Experience.

This is intended to be easy and fun reading--not work. I haven't tried to reach over any ones head. I hope that it will entertain and amuse. Or, it may dismay and offend. It might even bring a tear to your eye. Hopefully, you will not be indifferent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595096763
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/01/2000
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

	Dedication	iii
	Acknowledgements	xiii
	Introduction	xv
	Only in America!	1
	Until It Ropes Like Okra	1
	Never Been	3
	America the Beautiful	4
	Children of Nat Turner	5
	We The People	6
	Damn Well Not Forgotten	7
	Here's the Skinny	8
	To The Swiftest	10
	I Fight	11
	With Liberty and Justice	12
	Look a Little Further	13
	Pressure?	14
	Give No Quarter	17
	That Record Is Worn Out	19
	Carbon Copy	21
	Close To Home	23
	Color Struck	25
	Blacker Than Thou	27
	High and Mighty	33
	In My Soul	34
	Another Accident	35
	There Go I	36
	Mr. Negro	37
	Slaves	40
	Smile to Keep From Crying	41
	Larry's Lament	43
	The World's Greatest Lover	44
	Mercedes-Benz	45
	Say What?	47
	Crispus Should Have Ducked	49
	Fight the Funk	50
	Funky Joe	51
	After Five O'Clock	52
	Amen	54
	Daddy Mac	55
	Down at the Nightclub	56
	The Walk	59
	Where Are You Richard Pryor?	60
	What We Won't Do, We'll Do For Love	61
	Love's Way	63
	Love's Rollercoaster	64
	Lost and Found	65
	Lips that Are Yours	66
	Let's Go for a Ride!	67
	In the Night	68
	Embracable You	70
	Don't Expect Perfection	72
	Come Lay With Me	74
	Call My Name	76
	A Pleasure Denied	77
	Water Signs	78
	When it Rains, We Fall	79
	Silver Streams	81
	Short Mini Skirt	82
	She Speaks to Me	84
	Romantic Love	85
	Rain, Rain	86
	Rain Again	87
	On Romance	88
	Nothing Can Compare	89
	Me Siente Usted? (Do You Feel Me?)	91
	Loving People	92
	Love Don't Love Nobody	95
	Woodside Park	97
	One Friend Too Many	98
	Leaving the Scene of an Accident	99
	I Don't Want to See You	100
	Dear Johnetta	101
	The Wedding	102
	Men & Women	103
	Wanna Box?	105
	The Journey	106
	Rights of Passage	108
	Get A Real Man	110
	Knocked me Sensuous	111
	Traces	113
	Throb	115
	The Taste of A Woman	116
	Rituals	117
	Pulse	119
	Making Love	120
	I'm So Into You	121
	Grind My Mind	122
	Drive Me	124
	Can I Touch You There?	125
	Mom and Pop	127
	Mamma	129
	Dad	130
	Cruising With My Favorite Girl	131
	Come and Get It!	133
	Two Piece Box	135
	Kool Aid	136
	Greens and Cornbread	138
	All You Have is Your Health	139
	Wise Up	141
	Unconscious Killer	143
	Ruby	144
	Dangerous Living	145
	Philosophical Trespasses	147
	The Truth	149
	Spiritaul Fitness	153
	Present Tense	155
	Popes, Power and Limousines	158
	On Thinking	159
	On Temptation	163
	My Prayer	165
	My Favorite Funeral	166
	Mental Gatekeepers	168
	I Am Naked	170
	Dividing Winds	171
	Waiting Patiently	172
	Life is a Carnival	173
	Women Are Not Men	175
	The Ballad of Benny McClain	177
	Red Sash	179
	In the City	180
	Drum Chant	182
	Carnival	185
	Another Point of View	187
	Ronnie	189
	Playin' Ball	191
	Street Scenes	193
	Profilers	195
	The Trading Floor	197
	Sweet Red	198
	Street Shadows	199
	Punk	200
	Playa's Nightmare	202
	Keeping It Real	203
	Hair Ron	204
	H. Rap is that You?	205
	Getting High	206
	Dreams Die Easy	208
	Dead Soldiers	209
	Dark Eyes	210
	A Child of God	211
	The Honorable "Sweets" Has the Floor	213
	Yo Ho (Sweets Speaks Out)	215
	Where Do They Come From?	217
	What Yo Name Is?	218
	Talkin' Propa (Sweets' Blow)	219
	Over the Shoulder (Sweets' Lament)	220
	Nothing New (for the brothas who know it all)	221
	You Haven't Done Nothing (Sweets Chore)	222
	I ain't yo ho	223
	Mama's Hot Flash	224
	A Man With Brains (Sweets' Prayer)	225
	Fishnet and Black Draws	227
	The Games People Play	229
	Pearly Mae	230
	On the Tip	232
	Moon Rocket	234
	Downtown Traffic	235
	I Think I Broke My Thing	236
	Blocking Scheme	237
	Trapped	239
	The Four Minutes	240
	Revlon Lips	241
	Sexy, Sexy	243
	Girl You Made Me Lose My Place	245
	Tulips	246
	River of Life	247
	Passion Undisguised	248
	Morning Glories	249
	Harvest Time	250
	End to End	251
	101.1 AM WIBR	252
	Rapped Tight	255
	Teacher	257
	Ra's Rap	258
	On the Ed p261
	Busta Chop	262
	About the Author	265