After the arrest of Sherita Jackson, Black mother, Atlanta Black Star, October 22, 2019

 

1/

black women, you must practice

yoga.  become familiar

with every pose. it could

 

be good for your health, it could

save your life.  why not try

the sphinx position? lie flat

 

on your stomach, lift your head

as high as you can. breathe in,

breathe out, to the count of four.

 

feel free to modify as needed.

if your hands are handcuffed

behind your back, breathe.

 

as you scream for someone

to notice, breathe in & out.

as rivulets of sweat roll

 

down your back,  as your

daughter screams for you not

to die. please mommy, no mommy

 

please! open your heart up

as your head is pushed

further into the dirt, feel

 

your connection with the earth,

breathe. resist exhaustion,

resist identifying the cop

 

who did muscle you, who did

flank & throw you like a rebellious

calf. now be one with the universe

 

2/

get off of me with your weight 

i am one hundred and ten pounds

 

3/

today i can no longer

bathe in the benefits

of black-eyed peas & greens

 

rebuke the omens of oceans

dissolve myself into myself

never to gain the freedom

 

of wings. tame my teeth for the hunt

only to become the hunted.

today i will become seismic

 

grow like alice & blow out

the roof, my tendrilled hair

pricking the clouds, them sucking

 

up all that product.       /no    wait   i/

need to be an asteroid, one

gil scott, fannie lou & t’challa

 

could love, because i was the first

atom, first photon

to enter the darkness, first

 

whisper of god. i got

in/ter/plan/e/tar/y/

swag, making deep impact,

 

forcing people to higher ground.

today i beckon black girl

asteroids to come pick their

 

one-hundred-and-ten-pound mommas

off the ground, peel the cops off 

their backs, uncuff their hands,

 

unloose the flowers of their

wombs. black mommas will

become asteroids, refuse

 

to be identified or branded

by the country that named them

menace.         an asteroid can be                                                                                            

 

called anything it wants

 

sherita   /   sandra   /   breonna

 

they are legions of names being

 

silenced by this tinseled time.

ida was the first asteroid

to have a moon,  i will have two,

 

grow a full one hundred

and ten miles wide, a chondrite

ancient, dark,  made of clay

 

& silicate rock.  scientists

say the asteroid that wiped

out the dinosaurs was only  

 

seven and a half miles wide      

just image the shock when

i hit with all my hips & ass.

 

4/

imagine i let t.rex call for backup