at her inauguration & say, the future is now, & we’d all marvel

at the sun & moon looping the sky like a gif as the cars learned

to fly & our skin grew bulletproof

& colin kaepernick is my president, who kneels on the air

bent toward a branch, throwing apples down to the children & vets

& rihanna is my president, walking out of global summits

with wineglass in hand, our taxes returned in gold

to dust our faces into coins

& my mama is my president, her grace stunts

on amazing, brown hands breaking brown bread over

mouths of the hungry until there are none unfed

& my grandma is my president & her cabinet is her cabinet

cause she knows to trust what the pan knows

how the skillet wins the war

& the man i saw high kicking his way down the river?

he is my president

& the trans girl making songs in her closet, spinning the dark

into a booming dress? she too is my president

& shonda rhimes is my president

& nate marshall is my president

& trina is my president

& the boys outside walgreens selling candy

for a possibly fictional basketball team are my presidents

& the bus driver who stops after you yell wait! only twice

is my pres

& the dude at the pizza spot who will give you a free slice

if you are down to wait for him to finish the day’s fourth prayer

is my president

& my auntie, only a few months clean, but clean

she is my president

& my neighbor who holds the door open when my arms

are full of laundry is my president

& every head nod is my president

& every child singing summer with a red sweet tongue is my president

& the birds

& the cooks

& the single moms especially

& the weed dealers

& the teachers

& the meter maid who lets you slide

& the cab drivers who stop

& the nurse’s swollen feet

& the braider’s exhausted hands

& the bartender

& beyoncé

& all her kids

& the rabbi

& the sad girls

& the leather daddy who always stops to say good morning

& the boy crying on the train & the sudden abuela who rubs his back

& the uncle who offers him water & the drag queen who begins to hum

o my presidents!

my presidents!

my presidents!

my presidents!

show me to our nation

my only border is my body

i sing your names

sing your names

your names

my mighty anthem

niggas!

love them two g’s in the middle

hanging down like hands scooping

water from a river pinked by dusk. i love

how it starts in the nose (nig-) then

books it to the back of the mouth

& smacks the soft palate (-gas).

i love the smell of nigga on the tongue

& how it means that which is me

& them niggas over there too. it do my heart

well to think on niggas, lower my cholesterol

when i holler NIGGAS! when i walk

into a room & be nigga’d right back.

nigga every room i enter, i touch