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Even When Looking Up, He Thinks He Is Above the Stars
The world was a changed thing / a variant of its former self, and you were / A new ripple in the miles-deep pool of time, / that one breath strumming the tender / Chords of the system.
Even When Looking Up, He Thinks He Is Above the Stars
On Tinder, a man scoffs at my decision to list my star sign in my profile, wondering how I could
Be so smart still believe that astrology and the stars
know I am going to block him
from my phone, but before I go
and say, it’s like this:
atmosphere, in that exact millisecond, nothing
a variant of its former self, and you were
that one breath strumming the tender
the stars took note and took your carbon print
-ing the detailed modules of your life, dotting
documenting your
into an official index
sticky sweet compulsions, of why
she will allow it, of the exact hue of Pendergrass’
inheritances, of where your pleasures
of what the world will come to know of you before
of how you will betray yourself, defying
a God you can see. Some bird species
some choose to survive. None of this
understanding irrelevant in the face of
so great we question the abundance of
at their tricks of entropy, our eyes gleaming
of a dead light.
Camonghne Felix is a poet, a writer, speaker, and political strategist. She holds an M.A. in Arts Politics from NYU and an MFA from Bard College, and has received Fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, and Poets House. Her first full-length collection of poems, Build Yourself a Boat, was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry and a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Poetry. Felix's next collection of poems, Dyscalculia, and collection of essays, Let the Poets Govern, are forthcoming from One World/Penguin Random House.
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Shivering in the Summertime
some days my own womb shivers at the thought of / my black ass children being thrown / against any wall
The Only Invitation
I was begging / for some grandeur even if it meant / a little blood or whole limb
RATIONING SWEETGRASS
a steadfast soul-birth, tried and true / this is where you sing creation into being