“Children aren’t safe on the streets anymore.”

“There is pain in seeing things
as they are.”

“all
the tears
and horror
turned into
surreal black
laughter.”

“I read the story of the Chimera. I thought
same.”

“Call on your blood, but blood won’t keep you.”

“what i have done is done despite
the waving cloth and anthem”

“Where are the robes, the gavel of Lady Law?”

“i am sharpening everything i love.”

“why do people think that
they can’t say no when God asks them

to hate someone?”

“There is an order you must understand before you can make language dance.”

“my body
is under attack”

“I, too, have this yearning,
to reach into this screen”

“girl
survives, seeks grace”

“an angry white man shouting.
hide my accent please.”

“we write this new history. / claw at & cling”

“Belly, you roll-eyed saint, cloud
of blood, coil of convulsing wire.”

“the director instructs: make your body
into a tree”

“my body my own
temple of unapology”

“ring light as a moon!
don’t you dare declaw this bitch!”

“dusk’s mussed-up sheaves curl for hours into the straw-plaited bylanes

of our old neighborhood.”