“Union Park Protest #2, 2020,” (soft metal and ink, 7 1/2” x 4”) from the series “Let Love Win” by Edra Soto
after BAM By avery r. young
“Don’t force your poem to be nice or proper or normal or happy if it does not want to be” —Gwendolyn Brooks from “Young Poet’s Primer”
poet
poem(s) aint enuf dey help somethin but dey dont resurrect(t) lazarus or any other name in dem dey can force an exhumation of sort sometime(s) but at bes(t) yo amalgamation of imagery & soun(d) will en(d) up jus(t) a poem dat may provoke indict &/or encourage a WHITE donor to cut a big(r) chec(k) to a WHITE(r) institution but poet be mo(re) den de han(d) u do right wif or de aptitude to not be nice
on page ink cryin over body aint an arres(t) warrant or electric chair it an instrument of re-trauma mo(re) den proper Retribution a poem written in de voice of a weepin mudda or unwillin bullet dont stop police-on-blk crime from bein normal new-story to craf(t) within de confine(s) of structure &/or meter poet a poem aint justice serve(d) nor happy
medium tween body within embrace & instant los(t) of body if a poem was all deez thing(s) i wud call poem(s) jee-sus & it wud be body bac(k) by en(d) of haiku i hope a poem does a many-a-thing from comfort to complicate & not be merely lyric of spectacle attach(d) to imagination &/or want
poet verse in deez time(s) be important & u have to work wif yo weaponry but a gun a thing a pen will never be
