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Amplify Black Poets, Day 23

Black Lives Matter

First Fire by Camille T. Dungy Stripped in a flamedance, the bluff backing our housesquivered in wet-black skin. A shawl of haze tugged tightaround the starkness. We could have choked on August. Smoke thick in our throats, nearly naked as the earth,we played bare feet over the heat caught in asphalt.Could we, green girls, have …

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Amplify Black Poets, Day 22

Black Lives Matter

America by Claude McKay Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,Stealing my breath of life, I will confessI love this cultured hell that tests my youth.Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,Giving me strength erect against her hate,Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.Yet, as a …

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Amplify Black Poets, Day 21

Black Lives Matter

Unnatural State of the Unicorn by Yusef Komunyakaa Introduce me first as a man.Don’t mention superficial laurelsthe dead heap up on the living.I am a man. Cut me & I bleed.Before embossed limited editions,before fat artichoke hearts marinatedin rich sauce & served with imported wines,before antics & Agnus Dei,before the stars in your eyesmean birth …

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Amplify Black Poets, Day 20

Black Lives Matter

jasper texas 1998 by Lucille Clifton for j. byrd i am a man’s head hunched in the road.i was chosen to speak by the membersof my body. the arm as it pulled awaypointed toward me, the hand opened onceand was gone. why and why and whyshould i call a white man brother?who is the human …

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Amplify Black Poets, Day 19

Black Lives Matter

American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [But there never was a black male hysteria] by Terrance Hayes But there never was a black male hysteriaBreaking & entering wearing glee & sadnessAnd the light grazing my teeth with my lighterTo the night with the flame like a blade cuttingMe slack along the corridors with …

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