"My Love Is Black" by DéLana R. A. Dameron

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 25, 2018   My Love Is Black   DéLana R. A. Dameron

You might say fear is a predictable emotion & I might agree. Whenever my husband leaves for his graveyard shift, when he prepares to walk out into the abyss of black sky, I am afraid tonight will be the night I become a widow. I don't want to love like this. But here we are: walking hand in hand in our parkas down the avenues & he pulls away from me. I might be in some dreamy place, thinking of the roast chicken we just had, the coconut peas & rice he just cooked, & how the food has filled our bellies with delight. How many times can I speak about black men & an officer enters the scene? I don't want to love like this. But there is a gun in the holster & a hand on the gun in the holster & my husband's hands are no longer in his pockets because it is night & we are just trying to breathe in some fresh evening air, trying to be unpredictable, to forget fear for a moment & live in love & love.                Copyright © 2018 DéLana R. A. Dameron. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I am thinking about the ways in which anti-black violence pervades the quotidian, the everyday. Grabbing a coffee. Checking your text messages. Asking for directions. For help. In Brooklyn, cops patrol the streets. For whose protection? Mine? For most of my life I have known, or understood, that to care for the well-being of another black body—even my own—is to be in a constant state of fearful dread of a violent death. Will it be today, tomorrow, walking to the grocery store, or just trying to make it home to a worrisome wife after working a twelve-hour graveyard shift?" —DéLana R. A. Dameron   DéLana R. A. Dameron's most recent poetry collection is Weary Kingdom (University of South Carolina Press, 2017), a Palmetto Poetry Series book edited by Nikky Finney. Dameron is the founder and chief strategist for Red Olive Creative Consulting, a boutique firm whose focus is fundraising for arts and culture organizations. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Dameron currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.   Photo credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Poetry by Dameron   Weary Kingdom (University of South Carolina Press, 2017) "Black Laws" by Roger Reeves "What Would Gwendolyn Brooks Do" by Parneshia Jones "say it with your whole black mouth" by Danez Smith May Guest Editor: Matthew Shenoda   Thanks to Matthew Shenoda, author of Tahrir Suite: Poems (TriQuarterly Books, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shenoda and our guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038