☀ Today's Poem: "Rich Black, or Best Barbarian" Roger Reeves

When our consent was against our will
As in "It is said during slavery
Negro children were encumbrances

Often advertised in evening papers" as lagniappe
The petite largesse of luxury living
As in "Scipio baptized 1760 likely Negro boy

About a month old to be given away"
Into the sea as in below the harbor
Near Edisto Island Igbos swung low

In the chariot of their calling to be
Carried home and walked
On the bottom of water until handsome homed

As in the way we lay we mimed a body of water
So died for the want of water
Bearing this plow and flower

This bit and scold's bridle this mule-ing
Leather this blood lost
This goodbye gone

But one gone ain't always equivalent to another
As in all silences are not the same
As in all money ain't good money

What silences are you responsible for
What Jims have you jiggered
Into crows cajoled to sing in the pines

And pages of poetry magazines for a prize
As in there is no succinct definition of exile
As in Black is the Black ain't

As in everywhere the bucks went clattering
The police bristled in the way
As in form forgets fugitivity is the original human

Form as in best put on your best barbarian
As in this gospel is large enough
That anything can be said about me and you

Your momma and your cousin too
Rolling down the strip on Vogues
Waking up slamming Cadillac doors Outkast

And out of gas the empire smiles in its guillotine
And Gucci loafers
As if to say 'I practice the abundance of zero'

As in the world is always ending
While someone is and ain't
Being born as in motherfuck the weather

Come and join the band of wild negroes
Dancing the antelope and Holy Ghost
In Gadsden Gethsemane and Georgia

As in leave the angel to his centuries
Of death leave the police dog
Of our future in his heavy paws

Below the "Whites Only" signs and water fountains
Dreaming of bucks
Between his teeth and a healthy 401K

Or Roth IRA to ease into old age
And the arthritis of chasing
Everywhere the bucks go clattering

As in the black and blur or the bright blur of black
As in the negro must be still
Must still be moving which is the original

Cinematic motion of ghosts gardens and ex-slaves
As in address yourself only to freedom
To the seed the forest the swamp the night

The rain the river the rat the snake
The panther the tree
Leaping in and out of its green breath