Don Barbera

Until It Ropes Like Okra: Rhymes in the Vernacular Don Barbera

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 Okrastarted 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.