first.

you can always see the fires here
there’s wild dogs
wildcats everywhere
and they will eat you

our roadkill is all rubber
blast
broken spines sprawled up on the median

i never saw a place grow so fast
sunflowers race vines up the walls
burst through roofs

and they (we) are still
inside these houses
you can hear them..us
if you listen to these songs, these anthems
you can hear us

second:

she’s ancient
she is as old as africa
but her story is a different black story

a frenchman took her one night
but he couldn’t keep her
left traces of his love all over her

here

she got heavy on the earth
and then lighter
her dirt soaked by the sun again
grew fields
grew jungles right up through the concrete

we fight each other to survive,
but don’t tempt us
we will eat you.

+++

“they hungry”
“don’t look right at them like that”

don’t look past
don’t look down for sure
you don’t know what it takes
to be committed to freedom

to having some dignity
out here

—

hold you in my arms
close, then closer
you breathe in (you gasp)
i’m of you, with you now

cover you with my own body
which half is target
i move to protect you
but you’re holding me now

i feel your age
i feel the body you were given
falling apart

i feel new life in you
another heart beat
that fusion self
which will shed you