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Chapters (54)
  1. Cover Page
  2. ICARUS IMPOSTER SYNDROME
  3. A THOUSAND CARDINALS
  4. BIRACIAL GHAZAL: WHY EVERYTHING ENDS IN BLOOD
  5. THIS LAND IS WHERE WE BURIED EVERYTHING THAT CAME BEFORE YOU: AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CONCEPTS OF OWNERSHIP IN EARLY ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
  6. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS #1
  7. IN A RARE MOMENT OF NOSTALGIA MY FATHER REFLECTS ON OBAMA’S FIRST INAUGURATION
  8. TAXONOMY REGARDING MY MOTHER
  9. I THINK EVERYBODY HAS A YEAR THEY NEVER REALLY LEAVE
  10. SUMMER AFTER
  11. ELEGY FOR THE WINTER AFTER TAINA WAS CANCELLED
  12. CHICAGO*
  13. WASN’T THE MINOTAUR BURIED HORNS FIRST: VULNERABILITY AND IDENTITY IN THE MYTHIC BODY
  14. A POEM ABOUT TREES THAT ISN’T ACTUALLY A POEM ABOUT TREES
  15. NEARLY 7 YEARS AFTER THE FACT A BOY WHOSE NOSE I NEARLY BROKE HITS ME UP FOR BRUNCH
  16. IN THE NETFLIX TRAILER OBAMA SAYS “I DON’T FIT IN ANYWHERE” WHILE ANTHONY HAMILTON PULLS A BURNING CITY OUT OF HIS MOUTH
  17. OBAMA SAYS “MUTTS LIKE ME” IN THE MIRROR EVERY MORNING WHILE I GET READY FOR SCHOOL
  18. THE ACADEMY OF ACCEPTABLE LOSS
  19. PREGAME PRAYER WITH COMPLETE CITATIONS
  20. COVERAGE
  21. YOU GOT MCDONALD’S MONEY?
  22. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS #20
  23. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS #51
  24. THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE ONCE BOMBED CITY: PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS OF ANCESTRAL MEMORY THROUGH THE LENS OF RACIAL BATTLE TRAUMA
  25. THE SPACE BETWEEN SKINS IS CALLED A WOUND
  26. TRANSLATION
  27. ON THE NIGHT I CONSIDER COMING OUT TO MY PARENTS
  28. (SELF) INFLICTED
  29. FRANK OCEAN SIGHTING #268: FRANK OCEAN IS RUMORED TO SPEAK OF RIVERS WHICH IS LIKELY A LIE (DISC 1)
  30. NARCISSUS IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
  31. THE AUTHOR IS OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR OBAMA’S LONG LOST SON
  32. INSOMNIAC SOLILOQUY
  33. MY FATHER WATCHES FERGUSON VOL. 1
  34. PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER AS SISYPHUS
  35. MY FATHER WATCHES FERGUSON VOL. 2
  36. PALINOPSIA
  37. POLICE DREAM #607
  38. PALINOPSIA
  39. ELEGY FOR THE SUMMER AFTER DJANGO UNCHAINED CAME OUT ON DVD
  40. PALINOPSIA
  41. REGRETS
  42. GHAZAL FOR THE SUICIDAL THOUGHT
  43. PALINOPSIA
  44. THE SEARCH FOR FRANK OCEAN OR A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISAPPEARING
  45. VARIATION ON A THEME OF GENETICS
  46. LESLIE ODOM JR. SINGS OBAMA’S ANGER ON NPR
  47. MERCY, MERCY, HIM
  48. TANKA FOR THE 4TH OF JULY
  49. ZEALOTS OF STOCKHOLM OR ELEGY FOR THE STILL ALIVE
  50. OBAMA WANTS TO BE CLEAR ABOUT HIS LEGACY
  51. OBAMA SPEAKS OF RIVERS BUT WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON DIFFERENT SHORES
  52. NEGROTOPIA #3 (SELF PORTRAIT AS HEAVEN)
  53. SAD NIGGA MANIFESTO
  54. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

clean of the child             and this too is sacrifice and lineage      this too an incision

that made me possible

There’s the kind of person who gives their life              for something

There’s the kind of person who gives their life              to prove there was a life

Despite my best efforts      I keep growing back

Suppose to wash my mother clean         I freed my tongue

of my own teeth

and nearly leapt in front of a train                to save my parents the shame

of knowing I am not as strong as my father          Suppose my mother called

right before      as I worked my knees loose from old transgressions to jump

Suppose only sacrifice staves off sacrifice        What other love is there

Suppose          the alternate ending      the train curves a long moon

I split      I bouquet     I stay         a thousand stains     a thousand cardinals

BIRACIAL GHAZAL: WHY EVERYTHING ENDS IN BLOOD

And what language exists with no word for blood?

What gets across the legend as quickly as blood?

Where I am from there are no words for my shade

Only nicknames     approximations for the blood

Blacktino      Lanegro      Halfbreed   Mutt   Progress

confused     a turmoil of skin    bouquet of hunted blood

I am a burden in every mouth    my name a minefield

people forget what I am exactly     but I end in blood

Two tone sacrament    Where the soil meets the sky

but never the horizon    child with the invisible blood

Like a sunset I am considered most beautiful when

I am disappearing   stitching a gown of my blood

Child with too many tongues    gone twice over

aftermath    a failed experiment of the blood

People ask what are you   and I have no house

I bite my tongue into copper   search my blood

For a key   for a name that is not a translation for

Once there was a war   here is what we did with the blood

THIS LAND IS WHERE WE BURIED EVERYTHING THAT CAME BEFORE YOU: AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CONCEPTS OF OWNERSHIP IN EARLY ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

ABSTRACT: