We Named You Mercy
Copyright © 2017 by Amanda Johnston. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 14, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
Copyright © 2017 by Amanda Johnston. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 14, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
I keep running from the bogeymen on my shelf
who did bad things and wrote great poems. I try not to feel
them become erect with the word great.
I close my eyes and thumb past the award seals
that silence women I love. What a lie to be alive!
To come so close to greatness, so close it knows
your name, and survive.
after Yusef Komunyakaa
My black face fades,
hiding inside black smoke.
I knew they'd use it,
dammit: tear gas.
I'm grown. I'm fresh.
Their clouded assumption eyes me
like a runaway, guilty as night,
chasing morning. I run