808s
a free-verse poem to kick off the year! also, I read 'a nation' live for my first ever poetry reading yesterday.
a key triggers resonant echos
trance trounces thoughts, my folds’ static close
drums drain into synths as lights shatter and splatter disco
camera shutters eclipse and capture content
movement frees scapular stiffness, in the night necks roll
coquettes tempt cats, heads snap and catch sly eyes
that linger a little in the moonlight
will you loiter with me in God’s mind?
Can we dance ‘till liberators’ freshly free flesh blinds us in glorious might, as God’s kind?
Stand with me in the rain
Tear drops the shape and size of bullets cascade
The floodgates of the aorta open love and life before both fade
this club’s walls can’t handle another 808-pounding heartache
Foreclose the property, forgo the love—or stay the course
Niggas is too young to fear pain and too old to play the wallflower
Ain’t shit safe but the nursing of wounds—
only through knowledge and freedom can we attain all power.
I got to read this poem as an honorable mention awardee as part of the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program this year! Check out my reading below :)