(Jean Basquiat’s Bird on Money) 
Mad dash be-bopping
Yardbird in flight
salt peanuts salt peanuts
the first breath first mark
first step first flap first sigh

Bird on money tada
Fingers caress
a one note sustain
Dervish fingers pray
we ’ll see the domes of
Tunisia before light

Arrows fletched chicken scratch
teal that thing you do before blue
and black turn purple and orange
Tossed swinging ecstatic
comet burning high stepping

Para morir hay que sufrir
A green wood haze
On the way to the grave
stop create

JOSE FAUS is a visual artist, writer, and performer and an independent teacher/mentor with an interest in the role of artists as creative catalysts for community building. He is a founder of the Latino Writers Collective and sits on the boards of The Latino Writers Collective and Charlotte Street Foundation.