T SHOT #4

A boy can be a river if you let him. One where everyone
has fun in his waters & survives the flood. A boy is as tender
as a turtle, running to water not long after birth
if you stop him from drying up so soon. Niggas die

too often ’round here. ’round here, a boy is pinkish & left
in the sun. I want to drink from a river of Blackness
for a second, or a lifetime & no Florida mist takes me
back to this dimension where Black boys don’t get to be men.

I want the Black boy in me to be a river you can’t name
even if you send sounds underwater. Even if you swim & only
come up to be reminded of breath & sunlight,
I want to sink into ecosystems where human beingness sets in.

Discover his genius. Don’t dam him till he’s a pond,
or a tourist attraction, or another potential gasping for air
like a fish flopping for standerbys to kick it back in. Let’s dive
headfirst, America. I hear the Colorado is bottomless.



Reprinted from Freedom House (Deep Vellum, 2023) with the permission of the publisher.