"PYROMANIAX"

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(from Mood Demistify - 2001)

He knows he’ll soon die
and I form tears as the regrets for past
indiscretions illuminate his eyes.

We’re going up in smoke
we ain’t got no hope.
We’re going up in smoke
we ain’t got no hope.

Pyromaniax been sending
letter bombs to sexaholics.
I only check my packages every six months.
Scared my mail’s gonna
Molotov cocktail in my face.
Singe my flesh.
Turn my blood apathetic
‘ til it looses its will to rebuild
like post rebellion Newark
going from caucus to carcass
while black politicians
feast on the disembowelment of revolution
like vultures.

I said pyromaniacs been sending
letter bombs to sexaholics
And since they can no longer retreat
to "Plato’s Retreat"
like Nosferatu,
they descend upon the PATH
from the private bath houses
of Greenwich Village
to the public crack houses
of Newark, New Jersey.
Injecting each other
with the homonym/synonym of hope.
Worshipping each other's manhood
in 20 minute tokes.
Like it’s a mystery that
fluid down your throat
could surround your throat like rope.
Smell the smoke for years.
Ain't got time to investigate?
Don’t worry about it.
Eventually letter bombs self-detonate
like Angolan land mines
turning your family members
into embers.

I said pyromaniacs been sending
letter bombs to sexaholics.
And on a hundred boulevards around the globe
at this very moment
middle aged men been searching for some
unsuspecting teenager
to set their world on fire.
It seems nothing makes
a middle manager
feel more like a man than
sodomizing the menace to society.
And how many of you are
sure that your current girlfriend’s
former boyfriend
never took a walk through hell?
‘Cause when blood flows
from the upper head
to the lower head
weak heads,
seek head
from crack heads
and explode.
And spend the remainder of their life
in ‘depeche mode.’
Ain’t got time to live slow
when you only got weeks to go.

I said pyromaniacs been sending
letter bombs to sexaholics.
And every time I see him.
It’s like being shoved into a garage
filled with carbon monoxide.
And though he knows he’s dying,
he always manages to smile.
And in his eyes I see the reflection
of hedonistic parties
that began at midnight
and didn’t end ‘til past noon
entire rooms filled with debauchery
sedatives, barbiturates
and entire rooms of pyromaniacs
in search of new initiates.
And him, the vulnerable sexaholic
falling for every good looking man
and good looking woman he could

We’re going up in smoke.
We ain’t got no hope.
And he knows he’ll soon die,
and I form tears as the regrets
from past indiscretions
illuminate his eyes.
See, letter bombs been
sending letter bombs
to sexaholics and if you just
get to close to the flame
Icarus,
you fall for it.

"PYROMANIAX"
© 2001 Taalam Acey, All rights reserved.

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Spoken word recording artist Taalam Acey is an internationally known performance poet. Acey was one of four poets from around the US selected by Essence Magazine to feature at the 2001 and 2002 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Prior to that he was chosen to open up for activist Dick Gregory for a live PBS broadcast from the University of Texas at Austin. He was also one of five poets from around the US selected to feature in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's ground breaking "Theater of the Spoken Word."

His poetry has been featured in several publications including Essence Magazine. Acey has also lectured on performance poetry for the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Urban Education. His first video "When the Smoke Clearz" was shown in film festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Rotterdam and was one of only 22 films nominated for a 2002 Sundance Film Festival On-line Award.

Taalam was the 2000 and 2002 Grand Slam Champion of London's Paddington Int'l Poetry Festival. He was also the 2000-2001 NJ Slam master and the Washington DC Black Words Grand Slam Champion. He's won slams in both the Nuyorican and the Green Mill Cafe in Chicago (both considered to be the int'l meccas of slam poetry). Acey was also a member of the 1999 New York City slam team representing the world famous Nuyorican Cafe. BBC Radio One (London) also featured Taalam in their documentary on slam poetry.

Bleeding edge spoken word has brought this Newark, NJ native everywhere from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. He has toured extensively throughout the continental United States, Canada, Germany and the U.K. Taalam has produced several spoken word CDs for national level poets and recently completed his 3rd CD: "Morally Bankrupt Volume Final: Mood Demistify."

Prior to becoming a full time performance poet, he earned a BS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance and was a full time lecturer in senior level accounting at Rutgers University and a principal partner in a small business consulting firm.

His latest CD "Pieces of Change" is now available in stores around the country.
(from taalamacey.com)

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"Taalam Acey." All rights reserved. © 2005