not an elegy for Mike Brown

By Danez Smith | Originally Published at Split This Rock. August 2014 | Photographic Credit; Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

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

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

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

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

that feeling. that’s black.

think: once, a white girl

was kidnapped & that’s the Trojan war.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Danez Smith is the author of the collection [insert] Boy (forthcoming, YesYes Books) and the chapbook hands on ya knees (Penmanship books, 2013). Danez is a 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Finalist. Danez is the recipient of fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Cave Canem, VONA, and elsewhere. He is a founding member of the multi-genre, multicultural Dark Noise Collective. His writing has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, Beloit Poetry Journal, and in countless other publications. In Poetry Slam, he is the 2014 NUPIC Champion, a 2011 IWPS finalist, the reigning 2-time Rustbelt Individual Champion and was on 2014 Championship Team Sad Boy Supper Club.

To Read Danez Smith's Full Biography

Danez was featured in American Academy of Poets Emerging Writers Series by National Book Award Finalist Patricia Smith. Like her, he bridges the poetics of the stage to that of the page. Danez’s work transcends arbitrary boundaries to present work that is gripping, dismantling of oppression constructs, and striking on the human heart. Often centered around intersections of race, class, sexuality, faith, and social justice, Danez uses rhythm, fierce raw power, and image to re-imagine the world as takes it apart in his work. He writes and lives between Oakland, California and St. Paul, Minnesota.

This piece was reprinted by EmpathyEducates with permission or license. We thank the Poet and Author, Danez Smith for his kindness, insights, and vision. We are grateful for the wisdom that is our window, our prism.