self-portrait as gay man
i'd conjure Basquiat—brown skin, paint-flecked
hair: a curious matted sculpture of dust
salt water feathers sand aloe gold leaf
body: impossibly lean but not starved
ambitious maybe vegan probably
i’d topple out of bars bum cigarettes
not to smoke so much as smolder—watch white
boys watch my lips wrap around small white things
to them i am hip-hop: not Kanye not even
Kanye’s alter ego all soft speech & code switch
i’ma Kanye album to get fucked & fucked up to
some beautiful dark twisted fantasy
but i am more James Brown swag than Kanye shrug
hips: a funky drummer the big payback
by t'ai freedom ford
t’ai freedom ford is a New York City high school English teacher and Cave Canem Fellow. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Drunken Boat, Sinister Wisdom, No, Dear, The African American Review, Vinyl, Poetry and others. Her work has also been featured in several anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. t’ai lives and loves in Brooklyn, but hangs out digitally at: shesaidword.com.