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Don't Call Us Dead QUOTES

Don't Call Us Dead QUOTES

1 " ...paradise is a world where everything
is a sanctuary & nothing is a gun... "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

2 " it's not a death sentence anymore
it's not death anymore
it's more
it's a sentence
a sentence "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

3 " i am equal parts sick of your go back to Africa & i just don't see race. neither did the poplar tree. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

4 " who knew my haven
would be my coffin?

dead is the safest i've ever been.
i've never been so alive. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

5 " some of us are killed in pieces, some of us all at once // do i think someone created AIDS? maybe. i don’t doubt that anything is possible in a place where you can burn a body with less outrage than a flag "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

6 " i’ll plant a garden on top where your hurt stopped. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

7 " prediction: the cop will walk free
prediction: the boy will still be dead "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

8 " Dear badge number.


What did I do wrong? be born? be black? meet you? "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

9 " i've left in search of a new God. i do not trust the God you have given us. my grandmother's hallelujah is only outdone by the fear she nurses every time the blood-fat summer swallows another child who used to sing in the choir. take you God back. though his songs are beautiful, his miracles are inconsistent. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

10 " little black boy on the bus with his toy dinosaur, his eyes wide & endless

his dreams possible, pulsing, & right there "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

11 " i spent my life arguing how i mattered until it didn’t matter. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

12 " history is what it is. it knows what it did. bad dog. bad blood. bad day to be a boy "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

13 " dear badge number

what did i do wrong? be born? be black? meet you? "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

14 " they've made you a boy
i don't know

replaced my friend
with a hashtag. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

15 " & she looks back with eyes that say they said I was a princess, that I'd come to see you but you assumed flowers when I prefer a bouquet of swords. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

16 " i spent my life arguing how i mattered until it didn’t matter. who knew my haven would be my coffin? dead is the safest i’ve ever been. i’ve never been so alive. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

17 " one day, the boy with a
difficult name laid with a
boy who shall remain
nameless in the sun & they
rolled a round waiting for
something to burn. the next
day, the boy with the
difficult name woke up in a
blue sweat, walked the rim
of the lake & though nothing
burned, something was
growing from the ashes, for
mosquitos flew away from
his skin, ticks latched onto
his ankle & turned to smoke,
weeds & willows bowed
green spines to him & he
swore he heard the dirt
singing his name

saying it right "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

18 " desire was warm recently

shot from inside a body
into a body, strange

little birth, happy death
ritual, sweet lord

i've seen thy wrath
& it taste like sugar

lay thy merciful hand
around my neck "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

19 " no color to call white. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead

20 " i was his secret until i wasn’t
alive until not. outside our closet

i found a garden. he would love it
here. he could love me here. "

― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead