(Being an Occasional Poem for All Q&As Henceforth)For Jamal Cyrus and Tomás Morin, and all kith who make do to make work
“Do you also make work that isn’t political?”
I mean, do we make work
about where and when we were
raised: the three-whistle corner store
the empty coke bottle trill
the nickname that doesn’t nick us
as we blow through customs
with a toothpick smile
and hell-no eyes, sweet fools
greasing the bike chains
for this day, always saying
someone better fix this street
light? Do we flicker at night
when the kids are sleeping
dim, bright, dim, bright, do we?
Do we, at times, make work
about who breaks the news
to us at breakfast and how the syrup
she’s holding is now trembling, how
she’s beating, beating, beating
what no one can now eat, the mouth
fumbling for what no one
can now say? Do we make it
work with mirrors held
to the bottom of lakes, with combs
pulled through palms, with thumbs
flipping the bills, with two bags
and three names
at the border?
I mean, do we make work
about the road that crackles
with sirens or about Dad’s hydrangeas
which came up again that summer
violet clouds of bruises and pinker
than the Hubba Bubba we were popping
so loud, no one could stand us
but we grinned and grinned because
any air left in us meant
we could still answer
years later
a question like this? |