"not an elegy for Mike Brown," by Danez Smith

Author: Danez Smith

1 I am sick of writing this poem
but bring the boy. his new name

2 his same old body. ordinary, black
dead thing. bring him & we will mourn
until we forget what we are mourning

3 & isn’t that what being black is about?
not the joy of it, but the feeling

4 you get when you are looking
at your child, turn your head,
then, poof, no more child.

5 that feeling. that’s black.

6 \\

7 think: once, a white girl

8 was kidnapped & that’s the Trojan war.

9 later, up the block, Troy got shot
& that was Tuesday. are we not worthy

10 of a city of ash? of 1000 ships
launched because we are missed?

11 always, something deserves to be burned.
it’s never the right thing now a days.

12 I demand a war to bring the dead boy back
no matter what his name is this time.

13 I at least demand a song. a song will do just fine.

14 \\

15 look at what the lord has made.
above Missouri, sweet smoke.

16 Copyright © 2014 by Danez Smith. Reprinted from Split This Rock’s The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database.

DMU Timestamp: March 29, 2019 18:11

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