After the 1916 Film

The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition requires melatonin & the soft dying body of a monkey face orchid.

The brilliant strangeness of watching everyone not you grow comfortable with themselves.

Trying to rehabilitate one or multiple racists.

Learning death does not fear you.

I am afraid of stars. The sky is a womb that allows for reentry.

Can you teach me how to rest? I know there are different avenues to happy but I still choose this one.

I’ve had panic attacks since I was five.

Everything you fear keeps you alive.

I am not safe inside the vehicle nor when I reach the tenor. Neglect, a different type of death. I mean here I am in the center of my body leaning left over exhausting myself.

I am a life skill. I am a body who loves the mercy of movement.

Tell me what to do specifically. I’d like some guidance.

I scare away all the punctuation

I am a sentence that is not allowed to end

Copyright Credit: Karisma Price, "After the 1916 Film" from I'm Always So Serious. Copyright © 2023 by Karisma Price. Reprinted by permission of Sarabande Books, Inc.
Source: I'm Always So Serious (Sarabande Books, Inc., 2023)