Kinfolks
Here in the United States
African-hyphenated-American means
we ourselves
are part of the problem we’re trying to solve
though we have fought large & we won’t forget
When we look at where we come from
it’s still not nowhere nor has it been
forgiven (only umbrage
undulating between two fixed points)
: the wingspans of our dead
their desiccated bones
bearing the evidence of our burdened weight
***
Survival instinct
: we turn ourselves into smaller targets
: false markers for change
when nothing has really changed
***
From the iron treacheries of slavery
to the desperate pride of Obama-nation
: the red gnaw of disappointment
rough in the distant glitter
of the January sun
***
The din we’ve dropped into despite
we revel in our kinked &
matted hair our curved statures & melanin-
tinted skin
A voice
not unlike our own (interwoven in
hoodoo smoke : the past the present &
the future)
reminding us of what we are to each other
& we grow
into the slaughter
we were born for
Note: Italicized fragment from The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens.
henry 7. reneau, jr. writes words in conflagration to awaken the world ablaze, free verse that breaks a rule every day, illuminated by his affinity for disobedience: a phoenix-flux of red & gold immolation that blazes from his heart, like a chambered bullet exploded through change is gonna come to implement the fire next time. He is the author of the poetry collection freedomland blues (Transcendent Zero Press) and the e-chapbook physiography of the fittest (Kind of a Hurricane Press), now available from their respective publishers. Additionally, he has self-published a chapbook entitled 13hirteen Levels of Resistance, and his work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.