the cut up

For all the klingon homies

we eat wangs and throw   dem bones on     da ground                  

Shout when we want how we want               holy ghost

hand out my pocket hit me three times                              

pigfoot          and a bottle of beer we

jukejointsouthern     &baptist         call every brown drank

whiskey                       every grape drank purple          and

every spade a gotdamned pa’tok we put That

on everything we love        we strap

M-16s over     our shoulder so you          know

that we             like the wutang clan           ain’t nothing

to fuck wit             and we laugh                oh when we laugh

we laugh               loud              loud enough for the ancestors

to catch the rhythm                    and all over you       

You at the next table with your breadsticks getting cold.

we run a lapclaplaydown              jumpinplacescreamwheeze

all to catch that laugh        and get it all the way out     like all the joy

clogged up     from the day let it bust through                   windpipes

all at once      bust loose like the first bits of day

with a mouth full of               sharpened teeth.

Copyright © 2022 Candace Wiley. Originally published in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Books, 2018). Reprinted with the permission of the poet.