alternate names for black boys by Danez Smith
A modern poem. It's in list form which doesn't bug as much as Buzzfeed's incessant 'listicles'. It talks about 17 alternative names for black boys, drawn from recent news stories like Travyon Martin and Michael Brown.
What I find neat is that in a poem which comes from contemporary injustices and starts with war imagery 'smoke' and 'archnemesis' is the can't-be-hid consistency of light-filled images. In 17 lines, I quick-counted 12 light images - 'spark', 'starlight', 'kindling', 'brilliant', etc. Even the last word is a human, hopeful one - 'breath'.
Favorite line: "16. prayer who learned to bite & sprint"
Monday, November 3, 2014
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What do you think of today's poem?