By Button Poetry
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Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:06
Alright, opening scene.
00:09
I walk into frame carrying a six-pack of Rockstar Recovery energy drinks
00:15
because I almost died on tour in the spring,
00:17
and now I am desperate to know what Recovery tastes like.
00:22
So I drink all six,
00:24
and a neckbeard Jesus piston-kicks my limbs into gear.
00:29
Cut to…
00:30
explosive diarrhea from all the caffeine.
00:35
This is not what Recovery is supposed to feel like.
00:39
It’s disgusting and messy,
00:42
and neckbeard Jesus is laughing in the stall next to me.
00:45
Cut to… Utah Arts Festival.
00:51
Last June, a white lady is shouting slurs at a black poet on stage,
00:57
and I tell her to shut the fuck up.
00:59
The stage coordinator called security on me
01:01
because apparently I sounded too threatening.
01:04
The white lady leaves, security tells me that either I calm down
01:11
or I get arrested.
01:12
Cut to… the last day of summer.
01:15
I don’t know why I’m yelling.
01:16
Something has hurt me, and that thing is probably me.
01:19
Cut to…
01:29
Cut to…
01:32
I don’t know.
01:36
Sometimes I’m doing so much I don’t know where I am
01:40
or what time it is.
01:43
I just have to focus on whatever’s in front of me
01:47
and sometimes my friends think I hate them
01:49
because all I can do is look at my fucking hands.
01:53
Cut to… It’s July, and I’m a tree, growing from the stump of another tree,
01:57
dreaming of forest fires and old bird nests.
02:00
Cut to… This fucking mania, like an electric sun
02:05
automating all of these bad decisions,
02:08
making my mistakes so efficient.
02:11
Cut to… RJ, dude. Shut the fuck up!
02:16
Cut to… Man, I don’t even know what I’m saying.
02:19
I really need to shut the fuck up.
02:20
Cut to… It’s the first day of summer.
02:25
Five out six Rockstar Recovery drinks in, I don’t know if I can finish the sixth one,
02:30
but goddammit… people only like manic RJ.
02:34
Cut to… Halfway through the summer, everybody fucking hates manic RJ,
02:38
including manic RJ.
02:40
Cut to…
02:42
Myself, my fuck-up flesh.
02:45
Mania is electric scissors. Summer is the only time that exists.
02:50
So why I even think of anything past it.
02:52
Cut to…
02:54
Okay, closing scene.
02:57
It’s the first day of summer, and I’m about to make a terrible mistake,
03:02
again and again, and again and again, and again and again…
03:09
Look at this poem.
03:12
All cut to pieces
03:15
like last summer,
03:17
an effort to survive the coming winter.
03:21
I bet if you unfolded it, it would look like a snowflake.
03:26
(applause and cheers)
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
The post RJ Walker – ‘Summer of Mania’ appeared first on The Good Men Project.
