i can’t bring myself to write it down

sometimes i dream of pulling an apology

from a pig’s collared neck & wake up crackin’ up

if i dream of setting fire to cul-de-sacs

i wake chained to the bed

i don’t like thinking about doing to white folks

what white folks done to us

when i do

can’t say

i don’t dance

o my people

how long will we

reach for God

instead of something

sharper?

shout out to my niggas in Mexico

it’s true! we made beyond do with what the ships left

in our mouths. it’s true! our histories stink

of interruption, our long stories impossible

to tell for real without their names

which became our names. all that plot

twisted up in the blood, but tonight the land hums

all our dead’s beautiful bones, so let’s have a party!

bring your niggas! i’ll bring mine. what else

do we share, cousin? drums & cornmeal?

our mothers make the same face when

they think of God, their dead sisters, the rent.

shout out to all your mothers! shout out

to all my Mexican niggas. we need a bigger table now.

let’s get some food going. get the tias & aunties

still alive up here. let us wash their feet this time

before they stand against the hours despite the knees

& the water there to knead & batter & cuss the slow rice

so everybody can be a little less hungry. shout out

all the aunties. do you think God knows the white men

who leash the land hate aunties?

what do the approved uncles have to say?

there’s already so much to deal with amongst our own

folks to worry their white shit falling like rejected prayers.

ugh! i didn’t want to talk about them today.

let’s start over. would you like some greens?

do you fuck with Patti LaBelle? Rubén Blades?

Panameño cat? nice with it. we’ll listen to him next.

shout out my niggas in Panama. some more chairs now.

& all the Jamaican niggas now native to Colón, what up?

& the Caribbean niggas who didn’t already come

when i said come, come on now. all my African niggas

if y’all ain’t already here, get here. & the rest

of the niggas in this place they called the Americas, come on!

come on all my niggas who still call this land its older names.

& my Asian niggas, y’all already know. bring the broth

your auntie makes when she wants to make your mama look bad.

hurry on, y’all! we got so much kicking it to do!

i see some slow-moving Arab cats over there!

& some slow Muslim niggas too! didn’t you hear me

say y’all names? come! if you must fly in from your island

bring the island with! bring your cousins, your wine, your rituals as gifts!