Ode to Miss Simone
Lukas Ziel
All my niggas mad
they mad tired and worn
they breathe grief n pain
and cough up joy.
All my niggas tired
they tired worn and mad
they get out on streets
no rest in their beds.
All my niggas worn
they worn mad and tired
they stripped of being
and thrive by desire.
All my niggas free
‘cause it's all we can be
full of love, wayward stream
poetic, erotic, a blackened dream.
Lukas Ziel
Lukas Ziel (they/them) is a Brazilian-German writer, researcher, and poet residing in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. They are a Sociology and Aesthetic Philosophy graduate student at the University of Amsterdam and write for the Belgo-Dutch collective Black Speaks Back. Their writing finds itself in the assemblage of the fleeting and fugitive, where we find life in the unlivable.