I am on the other side
of your time, dearest fellow
travelers of the African diaspora.
With my black eyes, like Osiris,
I’m trying to read the burnt,
pitted skins charred by the laws
of the Set of your world
who cuts his kin down
without blinking. Oh Isis,
you’re constantly picking up
pieces of bodies! Instead of Osiris,
now, it is Freddie Gray,
Philando Castille,
Breonna Taylor,
Atativia Jefferson,
Stephon Clark,
Botham Jean,
and George Floyd.
Sorry, we’ve never met
and I’m not trying to disturb you,
but you’ve wandered down my aisle
with your hearts in your hands
still dazed by the shots
that splintered your dreams.
I am on the other side
of your time and I’m still
breathing the steel blue air
on this flight of frights,
trying to freight my dream
like an endangered parcel.