Home > Work > Don't Call Us Dead
1 " ...paradise is a world where everythingis a sanctuary & nothing is a gun... "
― Danez Smith , Don't Call Us Dead
2 " it's not a death sentence anymoreit's not death anymoreit's moreit's a sentence a sentence "
3 " i am equal parts sick of your go back to Africa & i just don't see race. neither did the poplar tree. "
4 " who knew my havenwould be my coffin?dead is the safest i've ever been.i've never been so alive. "
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 "
6 " i’ll plant a garden on top where your hurt stopped. "
7 " prediction: the cop will walk freeprediction: the boy will still be dead "
8 " Dear badge number.What did I do wrong? be born? be black? meet you? "
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. "
10 " little black boy on the bus with his toy dinosaur, his eyes wide & endless his dreams possible, pulsing, & right there "
11 " i spent my life arguing how i mattered until it didn’t matter. "
12 " history is what it is. it knows what it did. bad dog. bad blood. bad day to be a boy "
13 " dear badge numberwhat did i do wrong? be born? be black? meet you? "
14 " they've made you a boyi don't knowreplaced my friendwith a hashtag. "
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. "
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. "
17 " one day, the boy with a difficult name laid with a boy who shall remain nameless in the sun & theyrolled a round waiting forsomething to burn. the nextday, the boy with thedifficult name woke up in a blue sweat, walked the rimof the lake & though nothingburned, something was growing from the ashes, formosquitos flew away from his skin, ticks latched ontohis ankle & turned to smoke, weeds & willows bowed green spines to him & heswore he heard the dirtsinging his namesaying it right "
18 " desire was warm recentlyshot from inside a bodyinto a body, strangelittle birth, happy deathritual, sweet lordi've seen thy wrath& it taste like sugarlay thy merciful handaround my neck "
19 " no color to call white. "
20 " i was his secret until i wasn’talive until not. outside our closeti found a garden. he would love ithere. he could love me here. "