
INCOG-NEGRO BY HENRY 7. RENEAU, JR.
I will no longer lightly walk behind
a one of you who fear me:
Be afraid.
-June Jordan
All of our selves
a mugshot posed revolutionary
even under duress. We see everything
despite Amerikkka doesn't see us
been at the mercy of
gravity's slippery slope & back-
slide of momentum
as if criminally visible
were a cultural accessory of lubricated impediment.
As if muscle memory
required we lower our eyes &
shut our mouths. A type of
call & response
that both clarifies & demeans
so that we can know & finally
see. The prey
that conjugates the Blue(s) into prayer.
All of our selves a colorful stereotype
multi-
colored the suffocation dangled
like a Billie Holiday meta-
phor strange fruit/: a hope &
a prayer murmuration of feral voices
that is by definition
we who persisted to survive. Immersed
in the chemical pheromone of stealth
crouched one kill stroke away
from the second
the outside gaze falters. All of our selves
the dignity worn on our chest
even silence could not keep hostage. Our umbrage
the singed hairtexture
of uprising
a ball-
peen rhythmic tribe of hammers. The boom-
boom-booming of gangsta' rap bass
pummeling the trunk of the hoopty cuttin' the corner.