2 Poems by Darius Simpson

Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry belongs to and with the masses. He aims to inspire those chills that make you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of Africans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People. Free The Land. Free All Political Prisoners.

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YOU’RE NOT A POET TIL THE STATE BETRAYS YOU
 

writing a poem is to punching a cop
what punching a cop is to voting blue
it’s like comparing apples to punching a cop
unc, this whiskey is callin me your name again
blood in the august sun dares me to jump
dirty knife in the sink sings about vengeance
untouched ammo screams about loneliness
am i a punk for writing the state’s mortality
can an empire bent on death ever die
do pigs fly to hell or is hell already in them
will angel wings make me a better fugitive
devil on both shoulders says squeeze
we all somebody’s child tryna get home
you’re not a poet til the state betrays you

NEW SHIT ABOUT OLD SHIT
 
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these is between-job poems
these is third shift politics
 
these is no sick-time ramblings
crooked teeth between coffee stains
 
desk imprints next to handcuff scars
edge of the counter kinda dangerous
 
cobwebs fill the spiral in my notebook
weaving a story about secondhand creativity
 
speaker of the poem got a puppet mouth
speaker of the poem breaks the fourth wall
 
unfortunately poetry leaves the governor’s jaw in tact
i write in third person so pigs don’t know who to choke
 
i write of violence like a child forged in a lit furnace
turn away from the carnage and the zombies will find you
 
turn your back on genocide and you volunteer for the next noose
death is a matter of how you interpret disaster economies
 
sittin up at 2:00A.M. fightin sleep for a better casket
siftin through used books for inspiration in the margins