"I Don't Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We've Done to the Earth" by Fatimah Asghar

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 8, 2019   I Don't Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We've Done to the Earth   Fatimah Asghar

so I count my hopes: the bumblebees are making a comeback, one snug tight in a purple flower I passed to get to you;   your favorite color is purple but Prince's was orange & we both find this hard to believe; today the park is green, we take grass for granted   the leaves chuckle around us; behind your head a butterfly rests on a tree; it's been there our whole conversation; by my old apartment   was a butterfly sanctuary where I would read & two little girls would sit next to me; you caught a butterfly once but didn't know what to feed it   so you trapped it in a jar & gave it to a girl you liked. I asked if it died. you say you like to think it lived a long life. yes, it lived a long life.   it lived a long life.            Copyright © 2019 Fatimah Asghar. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 8, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "I think about the ways that our world feels unsustainable—some of the most pressing ways being the race war that always feels like it's boiling right under the surface, and climate change/disaster. This poem is about a day that I got lost in a conversation with a friend, and it felt like things slowed down around me, and I was able to put those fears aside and just appreciate what was around me. And how hopeful that is, getting lost in the words and presence of someone you love, having them put a pause on the impending doom that seems right around the corner at all times." —Fatimah Asghar   Fatimah Asghar is the author of If They Come For Us (One World, 2018). She is the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights the friendships between women of color. She lives in Chicago, Illinois. Photo Credit: Jasmine Durhal Poetry by Asghar   If They Come for Us (One World, 2018) "the earth is a living thing" by Lucille Clifton "Endangered Species" by Dan Beachy-Quick "Telling the Bees" by Deborah Digges May Guest Editor: Victoria Chang   Thanks to Victoria Chang, author of Barbie Chang (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Chang about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. 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