for (fellow Feminist Wire collaborator) Darnell Moore
After Audre Lorde’s “Thaw”
we season language
into sweet potatoes
deep heavy whole
with so many rooted eyes
we reason lust
into underground
unbroken something else
always saying reach
all around us
worlds are cracking
shells are breaking
birth is calling out our name
down here we grow
syllable by syllable
digging affirmation
watering prayer to
ancestor mud
we know
who the ground will wake
into all our green belief
when the sky will recognize
our measured blues
how the people will dance
into heat shaped light
you and me brother
we remember why
and
what a bright thing it is
to be brown.
