for Oluwatoyin Salau, for Breonna Taylor, for Cyntoia Brown, for Tameka Drummer, for Anjanette Young, for all of us whose names I wish had first floated from my lips on wings of joy, instead of…
| #ACAAAA | or |
“taken-Black” …girl, too umber for proper / amber alert. Black / girl, skipped right past “missing” into / “Lost: B L A C K girl”. nobody / even noticed you were gone, Black / girl, when your body was still / there for things men / WANTED: Black girl. something / in your milk ain’t clean enough / for store cartons / Black girl. or maybe / they look at you and find / a woman. did you ever really get / to be a girl, |
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| #757271 | or |
“token-Black” …girl / silver bit in a palmful of pennies / Black girl, stuck / into the thinnest slots and slid / down the darkest chutes. Black girl / they cash in your chips / for something sickly / sweet and wrapped in white / never black. girl / flicked into spouted marble mouths / after being wished upon like a faded / star returning to black / girl with the gilded / quicksilver skin / how do you still shimmer / underwater? how does your light escape / the drowning black, girl? |
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| #3C3837 | or |
“toker-Black” …girl, blowing grams / of bottled breath between the weeds / Black girl, find peace / in letting rivers’ / clear fade across trees’ green / Black girl, after twenty years of refusing / let your colors leak / into each other. Black / girl I swear: nobody here is counting / how many times you blink / Black girl shaking smoke out the dark / cloud haloing your mind / Black girl, the white sea / in your eyes, it never was / pristine. Black girl—it’s fine / to let a little bit / of red be seen / just inhale deep and forget / what it all means, Black girl—who ever / said you had to be anything / but free? |
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| #3B3938 | or |
“taker-Black” …girl: one piece / of pie don’t have to be enough / Black girl. satisfaction ain’t a synonym / for greed, Black girl. asking for seconds / don’t make you a thief. Black girl / who always keeps a mine / under your tongue, though they still try / to make you spit / Black girl, I beg you detonate / when they step on / your best thing / let the splinters / they stripped from your spine / tear out their teeth. Black girl / how long before / they realized your shrapnel / made mouths leak? hear me / Black girl: gulp your joy / before it turns into white steam / Black girl, ain’t it true that / all Sula Peace wanted was to be / loved by someone like her—another / Black girl? |
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