by Kemi Alabi
and even their pitch was a fever
became essential shouts
we can live on
a bill the body
owes for our magic
all living
would fall apart without
our Black
greasing the way between
home and home
grief our thickwater spirit
vision double
shifts Black
motherblue
back home
Kemi Alabi was born on a Sunday in July. A Chicago-based poet, their work lives (now or soon) in Poetry Magazine, Boston Review, Guernica, The Rumpus, Best New Poets 2019, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2 and other warm places. Kemi is the cultural strategy director of Forward Together and coeditor of The Echoing Ida Collection (The Feminist Press, 2021). They’re working, with much love, on their first full-length poetry collection. Find more at kemialabi.com.