Too High
by Phillip B. Williams
Stevie Wonder [Innervisions, Tamla 1976]
before this swift life goes four-eyed monster
a flying white lady wearing China white
with gumption gets your calcified third eye
to cozy the mangy carpet brown-sugared
with vomit and red drip that is not not a pillow
but good-gahtdamn the couch right there, Boy.
couch a big H, a wide-chested boy to help and hold
before a fastball snowball beheads you upside
the table. concussed and cussing. red. volatile
as Hera kinking as white nurse ladying up the wares.
body shape settled in the carpet. sugar-crust-lips-like
but just a three-way spill drying out the shit talk
spilling out three ways: piss, blood, and prayer.
gahtdamn couch coughed you up, no hero.
body shaped like a suicide that won’t go, carpet
head-heavy holding an upside-down
sleep. wake yo ass up. white horse wearing you out
and why red-red where you sleep, man? black eagle
sleep in your arms’ spotty red. what method
you pixelate with? pointillist pops praying from sixty
mouths, not one on your damn face. white nurse horsing
around all gahtdamn and church cough. heron balance
for the kill. fish see bird head holding sky upside-down.
ceiling light god-shaped. no carpet in heaven
for you to lie on your god on. somebody in heaven
found you though, unslept you for another red day
and thank goodness they fished you out yourself.
pressing digits. your mama pick up praying.
dragon calling you on the other end. damn, hero.
white nurse a white lady in China white on a white horse
saying “save me, Black. help me, Boy.” white
lies don’t work on your mama or your god.
a need smack into you and you just different. damn
who found you fucked up and tell them thank you.
tell them call your mama again. lips press mouthpiece.
the goodness of fish. white bread that multiplies.
getcho ass up. carpet vomit mean a new day. outside
snow a white-white unholy, whole block screaming
gahtdamn gahtdamn gahtdamn gahtdamn gahtdamn!
before this swift life goes four-eyed monster
a flying white lady wearing China white
with gumption gets your calcified third eye
to cozy the mangy carpet brown-sugared
with vomit and red drip that is not not a pillow
but good-gahtdamn the couch right there, Boy.
couch a big H, a wide-chested boy to help and hold
before a fastball snowball beheads you upside
the table. concussed and cussing. red. volatile
as Hera kinking as white nurse ladying up the wares.
body shape settled in the carpet. sugar-crust-lips-like
but just a three-way spill drying out the shit talk
spilling out three ways: piss, blood, and prayer.
gahtdamn couch coughed you up, no hero.
body shaped like a suicide that won’t go, carpet
head-heavy holding an upside-down
sleep. wake yo ass up. white horse wearing you out
and why red-red where you sleep, man? black eagle
sleep in your arms’ spotty red. what method
you pixelate with? pointillist pops praying from sixty
mouths, not one on your damn face. white nurse horsing
around all gahtdamn and church cough. heron balance
for the kill. fish see bird head holding sky upside-down.
ceiling light god-shaped. no carpet in heaven
for you to lie on your god on. somebody in heaven
found you though, unslept you for another red day
and thank goodness they fished you out yourself.
pressing digits. your mama pick up praying.
dragon calling you on the other end. damn, hero.
white nurse a white lady in China white on a white horse
saying “save me, Black. help me, Boy.” white
lies don’t work on your mama or your god.
a need smack into you and you just different. damn
who found you fucked up and tell them thank you.
tell them call your mama again. lips press mouthpiece.
the goodness of fish. white bread that multiplies.
getcho ass up. carpet vomit mean a new day. outside
snow a white-white unholy, whole block screaming
gahtdamn gahtdamn gahtdamn gahtdamn gahtdamn!
Phillip B. Williams is a Chicago, IL native. He is the author of the poetry collections Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books) and Mutiny (Penguin Poets). His novel, Ours, was published by Viking in 2024 and has been translated to French, German, and Italian. His forthcoming collection of poems, Lift Every Voice, will be released July 2026 through Penguin Poets. He is professor of creative writing at Rice university and founding faculty of Randolph College low-res MFA.