How did you learn to speak English?

Fresh Prince / Freddie Gibbs / John Singleton flicks /

Rakim / OutKast / “talking heads” & Big Tech / B.I.G. &

Big Daddy Kane / i tried to exorcise Black pain w/ tragi-

comic irony / & some nights / the poltergeists came for me /

shrouded my pillow in picaninny shadows / spit /

was wild critical / i had an odd-metered sense of timing /

i wanted to file off & cascade / erode after-hour thought-

barbs / punitive / grandiloquent / the glow-

red steel brand of  language / i wanted to wash over it

in a stream of arpeggios / my diction was afflicted

by an awareness of human scrutiny / which / looking

back / produced one or two wrong / notes / i needed to

slow    down    & i did    leave pockets of air    here & there

for ad lib    & care    until i learned to sing    inside them