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.

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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 :)