I Just Want to Live Long Enough to See Allen…

I won’t care if Trump is halfway into his third term.

I won’t care if the world is half flood and half fire.

I won’t care if my great-niece learns to talk

about tigers the way I talk about the velociraptors

from Jurassic Park.

I won’t care about 2030 unless Iverson makes it

long enough to get his 32 million from Reebok

because I need something in this world

to pay a black man what he’s earned, and I know this

is where I mention that story of the black woman

who wrote The Matrix and this is where I mention the slave

who gave Jack Daniels his spirit and this is where I mention Big

Mama Thornton because she claimed Montgomery

and I claim Montgomery and claiming Montgomery means

claiming Alabama and claiming Alabama means claiming

all the other states and claiming all the other states means claiming

Earth and claiming Earth means I get to ask you when can you ever claim

this Earth gave a black body anything better than a bed.

And that’s why I need to see Iverson walking out of the bank

like the whole world is one big Tyronn Lue,

stepping hard in a pair of Questions I’m too old to wear

but I will sit up until midnight to buy the first second I can.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2021)