A Poem: 'ran thru'

to receive him was to be his homies’ tootheir fable country’s sudden gatelet them glee raidwe ran a train on that nigga i be the event trained, surely willing tunnelable grave host the kick back the house party hospital after set we took our pills for this follow, he says open, say another he nigga, another i say to me: i know what i’m supposed to be porous & siren, bridge of their brother hood em path, table, text a sight door of beads barely a door so i blur lose my edges just loose color& sound 

Danez Smith is a Black, queer, poz writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Selected as a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and 2017 National Book Award Finalist, Smith is the author of “[insert] boy” published by YesYes Books and “Don’t Call Us Dead” published by Graywolf Press. They have had their work featured widely on platforms such as “The New York Times,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and “The New Yorker.”This piece originally appeared in ALIVE Issue 1, 2018. Purchase Issue 1 and become an ALIVE subscriber.Photo credit: Attilio D’Agostino.More poems:"Welcome" by Steve Abbott“The News” by Stephen D. Schroeder“Triptych for An American Backyard” by Jay Erickson