[2020] the divided states of attica

henry 7. reneau, jr.

What was    continued to be    &

what might have been    isn't.   

Violence never starts with violence.    It always begins

with a callous word    something that sounds

like sarcastic denial    or a shrug of indifference    remorse-

like a Teleprompter scrawl of thoughts & prayers

the arrogant dismissal of political soundbytes

                                                   as if we weren't even there.        

The body language & micro-

                                              expressions of shamelessness.      

The collective belief in a biased mythology    & Progress

(the too long syllables

of assimilation of everything)    like blood spattered

on virgin white cotton    & faded

to a stubborn brown pentimento.   

My people have a hard time letting go    holding onto offense    &

too fed up to let go.    The only dying that scares us

is freeze Nigger!!    &

all men are created equal    like the scariest part on a rollercoaster

is waiting in line.

                         The resignation of We Shall Overcome    from mouths

                         gaped the shape

                         of the same old Hope/:  a million candles burning vigil

                         for the help that never comes.   

Every Blue(s) moan that documents a scar.     

We are descended from

the only tribe of people who did not run to Amerikkka    a flock of geese

hurricane shipwrecked

onto the shores of Hell during open hunting season    or 

the chalk outline    X marks the spot

where the demon    thug    criminal fell     after 18 bullets in his back.   

Always, what doesn't kill us    waiting for another chance.   

We saw the lightning & that was the guns; & then we heard

the thunder & that was the big guns;

& then we heard the rain falling & that was the blood falling . . .

How many things They take for granted &

act as if is normal.    Our skin color

                                  used to incite fear    &/or

                                  justify violence.   

Not a murder or a conspiracy   

but the complicitous Nigger!!    behind our backs.      

& just how regularly    does something bad happen?    the business as usual? 

Our lineage the Big Bang singularity    that collapsed

into the weight of its own gravity   

but formed the stars    sending our light into space   

long after we are dead.

Note: The fragment in italics is an abbreviated quote by Harriet Tubman.  

henry 7. reneau, jr. is a pro-Black man who writes words of conflagration to awaken the world ablaze, an inferno of free verse illuminated by his affinity for disobedience—is the spontaneous combustion that blazes from his heart, phoenix-fluxed red & gold, like a discharged bullet that commits a felony every day, exploding through change is gonna come to implement the fire next time. He is the author of the poetry collection, freedomland blues (Transcendent Zero Press) and the e-chapbook, physiography of the fittest (Kind of a Hurricane Press), now available from their respective publishers. Additionally, his collection, A Non-Violent Suicide Poem [or, The Saga of The Exit Wound], was a finalist for the 2022 Digging Press Chapbook Series. His work is published in Superstition Review, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Zone 3; Poets Reading the News and Rigorous. His work has also been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.