Everything is fine, because

I am not afraid of your hands

I am not afraid of the way you reach

Pull my arms and I will unravel

Coffee colored threads to tie around your fingers so

You never forget to remember

Me

 

Everything is wonderful, because

I am not afraid of your fists

Wrap them around my throat and I will hum the notes until your fingers vibrate like

The strings of a harp in a symphony

Harmony

Clench them,

and I will stretch my hopes like a tarp and

Dance

to the rhythms you bang

Thank you.

Seriously.

I've sat on a shelf long enough

There is a layer of grime on my skin, I'll pin

My melanin on a clothesline next to my aspirations and

Smile

As you beat the dust out again

 

Where do I even begin?

 

Everything is great, because

I am not afraid of your teeth

Bite me

Aim for the veins and I will bleed ink onto white canvas,

Lead and mercury onto unlined sheets

Until the very taste of my poetry

Drives

You

Mad

 

Everything is awesome, because

I am not afraid of your guns

 

I don't think you heard me, I said

 

Everything is awesome because

I am not afraid of your guns

I am not afraid of your guns

I am not afraid of your guns

I am not afraid of your guns

 

I graffiti those words across my solar plexus in the

mornings

I smear those words in color across my chest and

Wait for you to spit bullets or

Shoot syllables until I

Shatter

Like stained glass

but, walk on what's left of me and

You will dig the shards from the soles of your wounded feet and

Every step you take will paint my past in self-portraits through the street

 

Here I am

 

Shoot me

 

And I will polish each bullet like a stone and skip them across the stream of your consciousness every second that you’re awake

Take my sharp tongue and trim your crosshairs

Tie my spirit around your neck and trail each exhalation like the tail of a kite on the wind

I will pour my soul into your eyes until it spills down your throat and fills your empty threats with

sunlight

 

Everything is alright

 

Shoot me

 

So that she can go home

 

Everything is wonderful

 

Shoot me

 

And I will lock your bullets in my chest, where little boys in hoodies can't find them

 

Shoot me

 

In the back as he runs and I will send your bullet like a shiver down my own spine

 

Listen

 

Everything is fine

 

Bounce your bullets around in my skull like loaded metal dice

Live or die

Live or die

Live or die

You can't gamble in church, so

 

I'll hold them for you

 

While you sit on the pew

I'll trap each one in my ribcage

And soundproof my body so that you can hear

the organs play

 

Everything is okay because

I'm not afraid

of

you

 

I don't think you heard me. I said

 

You don't own me

You don't own us

And you can't afford to entertain the idea that you ever did

That you do

 

Everything is awesome, because

We refuse to be afraid of you

 

Take your best shot

 

And when the smoke clouds our minds and clogs our lungs, we will

Cough the soot onto hymn books and sing

The stains from choir stands on Sundays mornings

 

Everything is awesome, because

We know

That even though he never finished reading the paper he left on the kitchen table

 

Even though she never got to take that trip

 

Even though they never made it to school

 

Even though they never said goodbye to their kids

 

Even though you took a father and a sister and a mother and a daughter and a son and a cousin

We can blink the rain from our eyes and

Plant their spirits in the pores of our skin so that

Every time you look at us

All you see are blooming photographs of them

 

You can't take that away

 

So,

 

Everything will always be awesome, because

We can forgive

 

You

 

And every spring we can

 

Learn to live

 

Again