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...

Inheritances My brother tells me he wants to save me from the shock of finding out what’s in Ma’s will. Do you want me to...

A Simple MachineThe noose that was used to hang John Brown is allegedly in the permanent collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Frayed and wild...

Untitled: On the Bus (A) Black men (man) glance (s)at each other (me)then quickly look (s) away.A quick check (-ing out),a look to size (each...

The following poem was translated from Zarpamos, a selection ofpoems by the Oaxacan poet Guadalupe Ángela, translated from Spanishinto English by Yael Kiken. This...

Last Supper in Baltimore An impressive murder of crowsdoes not makenational headlinesnor does the murder of young TaiBlack, trans, beautifulin an alley just down Lafayette above...

Gourd In a sideboard shuttered away, I find it.Shake it.let it fill my palm—this brown surfacesmooth and firm.Who held it,carried it to this shore?I shake...

Big Sky Big sky, how you fillwith hope mid-oceanmid-prairie, mid-uplands.Mountain tops recallferocious winds worthyof note.They sing the one notein the roof rack, the onewhistled tree...

A Heart-Shaped Amulet Gazing upon the houses and fields of my kingdomI can see my grandmother outside a cottage –around her neck a heart-shaped amulet.Behind...

How Soon Is Now? Christmassomewhere in Dixie a young mothernurses her baby listening to anythingbut The Smiths while geekstry to figure out her nameher location Students shotthe footage yet thered hat that...