Glaciers re-emerge in the north
coalesce into a tight caress
Down south the trees own larger shadows
than windowed buildings could dream of
It’s mango season and I
Buy from the local market
The woman who sells tells me a story
of how the world once laid in ruins
how the past is a myth, a cautionary tale.
I trade meat for her fruits
she pays me a smile and it adds joy to my life
I walk freely
into Nigeria
without a passport
The concept of borders is now a relic
The word border means
the fence between my neighbor’s yard and mine
and even that we tore down ages ago
The skyscrapers had been dead for eons
only refracting the cloud-filtered sunlight
Waiting for a spell
the forest nymphs whispered
into the undercurrent of concrete noise
The satyrs played their lutes the sweet music dissolved
city into forest, sprites sparked lamplight into fuchsia firelight
androgynous android bodies of mangled metal cluttered
the chaos of glass empire ruins
Houses were rebuilt from the shattered fragments of our old world
We paved streets with computer keys
We built roofs out of fallen towers and doorknobs out of melted iPhones
And people had hearts, not net values and we traded in possibilities
So our joy could multiply with the love we received from this loving earth
Ẹta.
In our Black Transcendent-Awakening
Some of us still lay bare in dirt
watch our flesh decompose
until we see our milky white bones
that match their marble homes
and pearly white
picket fences
like the ivory clouds that
separate heaven from earth
locked dumpsters as if their trash is gold and too
good for starving
decayed nails to crawl through
for survival
Some of us float below daylight
With gold in our stomachs and silver-spoon tongues
and still don’t believe
we weren’t born black just to die
****
I fear I never loved enough, fear I never loved our
shattered blackness enough
to form the revolution that would save us
never took the time to scour every inch
of my sodden ebony flesh, sagging with the weight of being
But they will,
they’ll look
and cover every crevice
of my body
When they find my still corpse
they’ll see the gun
wonder why it’s pointed at no one
But I imagine if I loved us enough, loved her enough
I could walk up to supremacists and the Kkk
And say I love her so much you don’t seem horrifying
I’d walk up to white cops my hands by my side and I’d say
I love her so much
Even if my last moments are here gazing
into your bullets approach
Piercing the thin film of water coating my eye like a silent river,
I wouldn’t pray
my life would flash before me and I would be able to see
every moment I had with her replay
And I’d be okay with that
I imagine the ecstasy of our embracing self-loves
Would impassion our black world
And black love would be more powerful than revolution
I imagine I’d dream lucidly with my eyes open
I imagine we’d love as our first awakening
