Do Black People Speak a Foreign Language?Hell to the no. You told me 50 years agoDonna Reed cannot translate jive into Wonder BreadUnderstood soft squishyWarm lolling tongueRolling Rrrrr’s thrumNot a TV...
The Dissolving Man
It is good to disappear.Incognito fires extinguished.
And the dissolving manin a liquid beaker.
As some faraway youth-to-deathoccurs in direct proportion.
No knowledge of the...
Crimson
What makestonight's tropical wind so coldI wonder how the trees will surviveCome and kill me, engulf mein your wild currentsin you, I have heard,...
Keep Coming Back
Before sin there was cocaine. Coca leaves spread like a carpet
on lush clearings and golden paths in the Garden of Eden.
Creation was...
This poem is part of the special section, New Poems of U.S. History, reflecting on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence selected...
Morning Class in Washington, D.C.
A sparrow collides, fallsglass to concrete
Beak opens, body spasms.
A student looks:me, bird, back.
She wants instructions.
Touch the birdto do what?
Stun it...
My family never identified as Creole. We always identified as Black. Creole was an integral aspect of our lives, but we embraced it as a way of life; we didn't identify as it. As I create this work my thoughts are circling around my Creole ties and notions of bloodlines and legacy.
When Her Boyfriend Leaves
the dense wooden door slams shut with only a fewcentimeters of clearance from the cold tile floor,forcing a gust of frigid...
A Kind of Spring
The best time to fall in love
is when you share your greatest fear
with someone who isn’t listening.
There’s a decent chance that
will...
