75th
here’s to the cottage grove
corner store newports
& nachos
from the king drive free
bus ride to the sister
talk “always be carful”
here’s to her reminder:
“you are a fragile
on the fourth”
On Drowning
I dream me a bloodied thing.
Covered in a
not a cleansing blood.
But rather, one to be laid on thick;
on door posts, on school doors:
“No lead shall come here!”
I dream me a liar.
Make me a lyric
in a sorrow song.
Drown in my morphemes.
Metamorph me to a white
aspiration: full human.
full human.
And let us live beasts. Best
we choke on that blood. Best
we drown in the purest one. Best
we cough
us up a violent storm
& choke. & choke. & choke.
& choke. & choke. & choke.
And learn better to live
without this oxygen.
OUT SOUTH
South-South-South Side
—Kanye West (2014)
SOUTH(side) a runaway from a bird call —
a mothafuk to a Jim Crow,
a side swipe and a middle finger.
SOUTH(side) a red line and
an L train at the same time.
SOUTH(side) a picnic — a run towards
for potato salad and fried chicken.
SOUTH(side) the broad-shouldered boulevard
— the uncle at the picnic
who slide you few bucks in handshakes and
might slide you a High Life this time.
A “come here nephew.”
An “I don’t like this.”
A show up at next picnic no handshake.
A show up at next picnic or graduation.
“no one believes me.”
SOUTH(side) make life quick like —
left lane on the Dan Ryan
or Harold’s from 87th after marijuana.
Chicago the most like America — an industry,
a North Side electric death.
A little destiny manifested
as an off duty back head bullet shot unlike the Bulls ever seen:
— Crowd goes wild
— officer not guilty
— salary paid by my blood taxes.
Add a school closing. A teachers’
strike. And school closings.
And a “You not from here.”
And more school closings.
SOUTH(side) a baby’s cry —
born in a choke hold and pockets filled with cigarettes.
A 1996 product of a mothafuk.
Immanuel Sodipe is a poet, essayist, organizer, and fried chicken enthusiast currently living in Chatham.