Lately

Lately,

The local black florist on the corner of 15th got the trap bloomin,

I meant booming again,

From special engagements to now a high demand of funeral arrangements,

It seems as if premature black flowers been keepin dead folk company these days,

Tombstones been poppin up more than clear stones on ring fingers these ways,

Nowadays,

It’s like black bodies belong in the same space of black crows,

We try to fly away, oh glory

Yet our wings get clipped and land straight back into a coffin

Hold up wait,

Who’s coughin?

Probably the breath of blackness cut from the chord of mother,

Resulting into smothered by oxygen masks

Medicaid don’t medicare about your black ass

Their insurance policy doesn’t insure that you’re in good hands

All state of black folk need to yolk up

Lately,

Newborn babies been dying

Mothers & fathers been crying over spilled milk

The formula for black grief?

Kill a n*gga that’s trying

But forget about the n*gga spying

Snitching on his black patna

Drug deal gone bad,

Feens overdosing on that angel dust

Now they black powder

Where’s black power?

When our fist connect in anger more than unity

We love to hate our black skin

And march after our life mattered

Really where is the black community?

Gathered on the grounds where black bones crackles as they age amongst old gospel sounds,

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

Pulling up in another black hearse seems like a must,

Obituaries can’t omit these trails of black tears are tributary,

Black preachers with their misses demeanor

Come to black bandos preparing black parades to take the show

But the anticipators aren’t amused,

Their canvases are blank and black

This by itself is a muse,

Not showcased in galleries

But on the front page of newspapers and hidden passages of diaries,

Kept under the blackness of beds,

So when you hear about back death,

Just know it wasn’t about the sunrise.

It was all for the sunset.

Photo © Lena Shekhovtsova