& suddenly
everybody know how to foxtrot with they fingers.
knees two-steppin on cushion and good hair,
arms careless with the spasm of unseeing.
suddenly there is nothing to pray for. like
God done peeked his head into the corners
of our derelict cities & said he had enough.
suddenly we too much. suddenly it’s loud
out here & we all know who fault it is.
We be an endless maniacal scream. the witches
that cannot burn & will not stand for our reckoning.
We be the reckoning. judge & jury & quiet
execution. rapture running this machine into the ground.
The eternal consequence of a nation’s reckless
silence. We be the weeping clouds of a lynching’s
night. ever present to bear witness until the sterile
light of a new, tedious day wants us gone.
Khalypso is a Sacramento-based actor and poet. They are fat, black, neurodivergent, queer, and an agender badass. Their work can be found in Cosmonauts Avenue, Rigorous Journal, , and Shade Journal, as well as a few others. Their chapbook manuscript, THE HOTTENTOT LIGHTS THE GAS HERSELF, was a runner up for the 2018 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize. They are the 2019 Sacramento Youth Poet Laureate and you can find them on Twitter at KhalypsoThePoet.