How America Loves Chicago’s Ghosts
More Than the People Still Living in the City:
an Erasure Poem
using the lyrics of Chance The Rapper’s “Paranoia”
Eyes been on the gun,
on the dying,
the shit neighborhood.
They watch the paper,
watch the hood boy militia
trapped in the middle of the sun.
Lips with a lotta murder talk.
They probably scared of all the
dark dark down here. Our nation,
dry eyes, paranoia and a lotta dying,
been pouring fireworks in the summer.
I hear everybody’s god
a little scared too.
by Jacqui Germain
Eyes been on the gun,
on the dying,
the shit neighborhood.
They watch the paper,
watch the hood boy militia
trapped in the middle of the sun.
Lips with a lotta murder talk.
They probably scared of all the
dark dark down here. Our nation,
dry eyes, paranoia and a lotta dying,
been pouring fireworks in the summer.
I hear everybody’s god
a little scared too.
by Jacqui Germain
Jacqui Germain is a student, organizer and 2014 Pushcart Prize nominee studying African & African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She enjoys studying the histories of people of color, fighting oppressive political structures and generally having little to no chill. Jacqui has work published in Muzzle Magazine, Word Riot and Anti-, and her first poetry chapbook, The Bones, The Salt & The Water, will be released through Button Poetry later this year.
