“SLAVERY WAS THE WORLD’S FIRST NUCLEAR BOMB”
by KYLE G. DARGAN
—Eric Philips, Vice Chair
CARICOM Reparations Committee
Runteldat if blkness ever tips extinct–epitaph
on reel-repeat. Let it play and play until
you are bored enough to thumb swipe the God-
honest sooth back into the algorithm’s abyss.
You sick too. Not zero-ground sick like my kin
and I been made. You civil-sick. Low, slow-
killing doses. You chose snack-sized
radiation over reparations–the chelation
pill meant to bind with the phobic isotopes
absorbed into your heart walls. Who knows
when, our swag and struggle, our brio,
our griot may fall off, in necrotic clumps,
from our bones–the zombies you’ve long desired.
But our half-life long too. Chase your brain forever.
IF ONLY YOU KNEW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE
by KYLE G. DARGAN
[The Empire Strikes Back]
Our respites from the city’s summer heat islands were known to be the spoils of white. The Hoth-ian a/c that cranked from the drug dealers’ sedans as, cups-in-hand, we moved through stoplight traffic bumming for funds to feed our youth swim team. The dealers’ whips Vader-black, burnished, and tint-rich. And there I would stop caring about retrieving any of their coins. I just wanted those moments to hang my head at their dropped driver-side windows while the brittle vent-wind broke against my sweat. There was no question then. I could feel the power. I could imagine why—with concrete making afternoon burn like we lived beneath two suns—someone would desire the conscription of drug wars. I could sense a bit of the rebel leaving my body each time. There was no need of the dark. That cold was force enough to give me visions of an empire of white.
author pic here
Kyle G. Dargan still writes poems, just not collections. He is the author of six collections of poetry, which have been awarded the Cave Canem Prize, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, the Lenore Marshall Prize, and longlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. He has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and support the development of the National Student Poets Program. He heads the literary division of Janelle Monáe’s creative company, Wondaland, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Communications at American University in Washington, D.C. Along with Shyree Mezick, he operates as SKKS (“Seeks”) Creates, a creative consulting firm focused on ideation and alignment of narrative architecture around film, music, digital media, and more. His forthcoming works include an eco-speculative novel and a collection of Star Wars lyric shorts.
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