C.R.E.A.M. by Danez Smith

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 1, 2017   C.R.E.A.M.   Danez Smith

after Morgan Parker, after Wu-Tang                             in the morning I think about money              green horned lord of my waking                             forest in which I stumbled toward no salvation                                         prison made of emerald & pennies              in my wallet I keep anxiety & a condom   I used to sell my body but now my blood spoiled              All my favorite songs tell me to get money                                                    I'd rob a bank but I'm a poet                                         I'm so broke I'm a genius              If I was white, I'd take pictures of other pictures & sell them   I come from sharecroppers who come from slaves who do not come            from kings                                                 sometimes I pay the weed man before I pay          the light bill                             sometimes is a synonym for often   I just want a grant or a fellowship or a rich white husband & I'll be                straight              I feel most colored when I'm looking at my back account   I feel most colored when I scream ball so hard motherfuckas wanna           find me                                         I spent one summer stealing from ragstock   If I went to jail I'd live rent-free but there is no way to avoid making            white people richer                                               A prison is a plantation made of stone & steel              Being locked up for selling drugs = Being locked up for trying to        eat                                              a bald fade cost 20 bones now a days                             what's a blacker tax than blackness?                                             what cost more than being American and poor?               here is where I say reparations.                                         here is where I say got 20 bucks I can borrow?               student loans are like slavery but not but with vacation days but        not but police   I don't know what it says about me when white institutions give me              money                             how much is the power ball this week?   I'mma print my own money and be my own god and live forever in a            green frame                             my grandmamma is great at saving money               before my grandfather passed he showed me where he hid his            money & his gun                             my aunt can't hold on to a dollar, a job, her brain                                         I love how easy it is to be bad with money                             don't ask me about my taxes                                         the b in debt is a silent black boy trapped            Copyright © 2017 Danez Smith. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Looking to Morgan Parker's work always helps me figure out my way through the work and the world. Her poem 'All They Want Is My Money My Pussy My Blood' is one of the best poems I've ever read, and thinking about her lines and play and boldness in that poem helped guide me through thinking about money, something that usually makes me itchy, nauseous, and cranky." —Danez Smith   Danez Smith is the author of Don't Call Us Dead, forthcoming in 2017 from Graywolf Press. They live in St. Paul, Minnesota.    Poetry by Smith   Don't Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017) "The Book of Genesis" by Morgan Parker "Tell Me Something Good" by Ocean Vuong "The Lost Woods as Elegy for Black Childhood" by Derrick Austin Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. 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

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