Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6jxvAUVGYc Starts at: 01:30:18 (jump to 01:30:18)
Patrick Finn: ‘My Dark Parrot’ Slam Poem
[01:30:18] Patrick, man. Yeah. [01:30:21] But how are you feeling? You feeling ready? [01:30:24] Yeah, it’s so weird. [01:30:25] I would get like this shake. [01:30:27] Before I ever perform, which is weird because I’m cozy in front of people. [01:30:31] Yeah, it still happens. It’s so weird. [01:30:33] Yeah. [01:30:34] And you’re in a screen too. [01:30:38] Anxiety is a strange, strange thing. [01:30:41] It really, really is. [01:30:45] All right. [01:30:46] Let me know when you’re ready. [01:30:48] All right. Let her rip, man. [01:30:50] Let’s do it. [01:30:51] Well, hi. Hi, everybody. [01:30:52] Thank you so much. [01:30:54] My name is Patrick Finn. [01:30:57] I’m here to compose a slam poem that I made called My Dark Parrot. [01:31:01] Enjoy. [01:31:04] Did I ever tell you about my dark parrot? [01:31:07] He sits right here on my shoulder. [01:31:10] Well, obviously he’s invisible, but his weight resembles that of a massive boulder. [01:31:15] And he repeats things. [01:31:17] He repeats a lot. [01:31:18] This seemingly endless squawk riddled with realities that I thought I’d forgot. [01:31:24] Obsessed with my past, he flies to first and foremost. [01:31:27] And leaves me last. [01:31:28] He shouts my past from the finish line, but I run back. [01:31:31] He flies faster. [01:31:32] And I could have sworn I was his master. [01:31:37] But remember, he can fly. [01:31:39] He flies as I sink. [01:31:41] And then returns to me once again, eagerly clawing open my eyes so I never get a chance to blink. [01:31:46] No, he’s forcing me to look. [01:31:48] With no chance to read, the good book just caught on that look that I took. [01:31:53] Left to sit, to wait, and marinate in a past that still leaves me. [01:31:57] Shook. [01:31:58] But then, suddenly, while attached, he flies high. [01:32:03] And he brings me along. [01:32:05] And I’m soaring happily through the clouds. [01:32:08] And that parrot convincingly exclaims that nothing can go wrong. [01:32:12] And I believed him. [01:32:14] That fucker, I believed him. [01:32:16] He drops me. [01:32:18] And then I fall. [01:32:18] And I fall fast. [01:32:20] Hitting the ground so hard, even my mind needs a cast. [01:32:24] I have a dark parrot. [01:32:26] Did I mention he’s invisible? [01:32:27] To which, in my confusion, my mind becomes divisible. [01:32:31] Three parts. [01:32:32] Three thoughts. [01:32:33] Me, myself, or that gun on my shelf. [01:32:36] And then I pause. [01:32:37] And I hear my wrist wrapped in gauze. [01:32:39] Feeling the fears of so many years of so many tears. [01:32:42] That clouded the memory of all of my loving peers. [01:32:45] Their faces now gone, but their heads are on my lawn. [01:32:49] Each resembling my own in this constant, agonizing mode. [01:32:55] Mine is a dark parrot. [01:32:57] I shake, I scream, and I try to replace this nightmare with some beautiful dream. [01:33:03] I try, but the parrot won’t die. [01:33:06] Well, not at least until I can find my own way to fly. [01:33:11] Thank you. [01:33:14] So, real quick, that poem. [01:33:17] Thank you. [01:33:18] I always like to put this at the end. [01:33:19] That poem is, I wrote that in a, basically, a state of, [01:33:25] when I was having flashbacks. [01:33:27] I’m living with PTSD and a lot of other things. [01:33:30] And in that state, I was able to channel it. [01:33:33] And I was able to focus and just get what was going on in outside. [01:33:38] So I could see it. [01:33:39] So it doesn’t have control of me. [01:33:40] And that’s why I do these things. [01:33:41] It’s the only one I have. [01:33:42] And I’m going to make more of it to show all of you that you’re worth it. [01:33:46] That we have a story. [01:33:47] That that story does not, that we are not the product of our past. [01:33:51] We are together. [01:33:53] We are warriors. [01:33:54] And we have so much more. [01:33:55] We have so much more ink left in our pen. [01:33:56] So keep fighting, everybody. [01:33:58] You’re worth it. [01:33:58] And I love all of you. [01:33:59] Thank you.