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To believe in God is to love
What none can see. Let a lover go,
Let him walk out with the good
Spoons or die
Without a signature, and so much
Remains for scrubbing, for a polish
Cleaner than devotion. Tonight,
God is one spot, and you,
You must be one blind nun. You
Wipe, you rub, but love won’t move.
Copyright © 2013 by Jericho Brown. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on April 9, 2013. Browse the Poem-a-Day archive.
I once saw Jazell Barbie Royale
Do Whitney Houston so well
I got upset with myself for sneaking
Past the cashier
After having been patted down. Security frisks you
For nothing. They don’t believe in trouble. They don’t
Imagine a gun or a blade, though
My uncles are the tallest men I know.
Every doorway a chance to bow
Their heads, they love the Lord.
Skin so dark their last name is Lenoir.
Imagine growing up Black
In Louisiana with a name that French
But only able to pass for night.
The water is one thing, and one thing for miles.
The water is one thing, making this bridge
Built over the water another. Walk it
Early, walk it back when the day goes dim, everyone
Rising just to find a way toward rest again.
We work, start on one side of the day
Like a planet’s only sun, our eyes straight