To: All Poets From: Northeastern North Carolina
It’s just getting hot,
dogwoods showering our shoulders with flowers.
I saw dead baby birds on a trail
so I know new life has arrived
lost in the survival of pine and ash. I’ll say it plainly—
we need you down here.
Yesterday, my uncle put a nail through his thumb
working for the same white man he’s worked for since sixth grade.
Last night his blood fell on the bathroom floor and made a star
he couldn’t follow.
He needs to hear your poems.
Copyright © 2020 Tyree Daye. From Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). Used with permission of the author and Copper Canyon Press (coppercanyonpress.org)
Tyree Daye
Tyree Daye was raised in Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of the poetry collections a little bump in the earth (Copper Canyon Press, 2024); Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020); and River Hymns (American Poetry Review, 2017), the winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize.
A Cave Canem Fellow and a Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellow, Daye is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Award.