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with that ass, they won’t look at your eyes

                                          after Mark Bradford

because eventually everything is reduced
to abstraction like too loud song becoming
a blues note—a footnote for the news   then static
then dynamic because eventually everything
is reduced  abstract like blackness becomes black
caricature like a too-tight glove      courtroom antics
cue the greek chorus of anti-semitic semantics
because eventually everything is re-juiced
electrified abs track & field niggers high jump
while black blurs master hurdles    did massa say
how high? how feet how knuckle how buttock how thigh
become bluestreak how running while black becomes
literal not abstract like running for hobby
pale knobby knees     literal like bullet     then blurrr—                      
                                                                       then static


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. 
ISSN 2157-8079
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