scooby-doo enters the diary room
i am fed to pretend that i believe in ghosts
they want to make a terrified thing out of this great dane
like we the same species
do you know how it feels to eat yourself
out of fear
they feed them to shaggy too
when he gets scared
that nigga wild/all tall and terrified/all down to cuddle in the dark
all white boy with no job/no sense and nothing but
a hunger/i trust its constancy
ever been fed to your master
i cannot trust people i have never seen eat/i have never unmasked a villain whose name i did not know already/whose prints were not everywhere to begin with/i am colorblind/i know my place
have you ever seen them take my collar off
must be nice to pretend i’m not speaking english get away with it even though they taught me this tongue this even though they bought me
i have never run away i ain’t got a mystery machine of my own i am cog & the main attraction he who solves he who begs to go home and be done with the hauntings i am fed to pretend that i can’t grab the wheel and drive this shit into the great dismal lock the doors watch them take off each other’s masks i am fed to pretend that i’m on payroll and this is a passion project i have spent my life in graveyards i am certain that bones are all that is left just bones and bones and greed i am fed to pretend that i’m most afraid when we split up and i’m left with the boy who knows not how heavy he is stays jumping into my arms rubbing his lipless mouth over my collar queer & dropping my Y sweet calling me scoob & when they name you your name is glass to be broken i am most afraid when i pull the mask off & pretend i didn’t know the villain all along
i look like
villain/these guilty godless days/
you don’t see
how they smile at me/relieved
as if to say every muscle in your face calls your bluff/mutt
will you ever stop pretending
Jonathan Jacob Moore is a Black Mexican motorcity hoodqueer poet and theory girl. He attends Tufts University and is Founding President of the Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts. He appreciates good hugs, cold cheesecake, and Black pettiness.