Do Black People Speak a Foreign Language?

Hell to the no. You told me 50 years ago
Donna Reed cannot translate jive into Wonder Bread
Understood soft squishy
Warm lolling tongue
Rolling Rrrrr’s thrum
Not a TV accent
Or Broken English, Creole, Patois
Matters not masters
Immigrate expatriate a
TPS un-extended offer. Pass on tiger woods
or clarence thomas or my worst friend in college
proclaims the game is green, blue, yellow, orange
not pale, tan, taupe all shades of brown

I remember your reading list of Black authors in 1970
was indeed much shorter than today.
Now the bare bottom guillotine of censors claw at shelf space.
Only muted echoes will be left.

I’m a Crocodile Supremacist

I’m a crocodile, and I hate alligators
They are green, but we’re greener
Their snouts are keen, but ours much keener

I mean, we work hard, and they’re just lazy
While we avoid paying taxes, they drive taxis!
Yes, I am a crocodile supremacist and I’m told it’s okay

Since we are better anyway,
and the current state will cater to haters
Make it chic to love sadists, who relish starving gators

As I see it’s my duty to inter-mingle, while date raping and eating
an alligator single with my razor-sharp teeth, a much-practiced skill.
making her scream is what crocodile supremacy will do.

But most of the time I’m a regular croc.
And some of my friends were gators. ‘Til now.

So let them deport every last alligator, I don’t care
until my uber doesn’t show, like just this minute, Damn!

Then, Hey, Taxi, Taxi, Taxi!!!…

My Brother! My friend!
I have a small need for your existence

Jamilah Ali is a queer progressive Muslim poet and writer. She has read her work at The Gathering of the Tribes in NYC, and her poem was selected for Washington DC Pride Poems in 2026. She has published on the blog, Feminism and Religion. She is a retired health care provider and lives in Silver Spring, MD with her partner and kitties.

Featured image “Box lid with a crocodile design from ancient Nubia 100 BCE-300 CE Penn Museum” Uploaded by Mary Harrsch to be licensed via creative commons 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.