![]() A Bronx, New York native, Roya Marsh is a nationally recognized poet, performer, educator and activist. She is the Poet in Residence at Urban Word NYC and works feverishly toward LGBTQIA justice and dismantling white supremacy. Roya’s work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, Flypaper Magazine, Frontier Poetry, the Village Voice, Nylon Magazine, Huffington Post, The Root, Button Poetry, Def Jam’s All Def Digital, Lexus Verses and Flow, NBC, BET and The BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket 2018). In Spring 2020, MCD x FSG Originals published Roya Marsh's dayliGht, a debut collection of experimental poetry exploring themes of sexuality, Blackness, and the prematurity of Black femme death--all through an intersectional feminist lens with a focus on the resilience of the Black woman. for (insert name)
never knowing how to label a dream until you want to tell your children apart you'll forget how to tell your children apart not wanting your baby to die on a cross like (insert name) or in a cross walk like (insert name) not wanting him to be like (insert name) lying in middle of the street not another (insert name) crying he can't breathe or (insert name) shot at the doorstep 'cause black fist against door equates fist against body 'cause guns ring out more than doorbells or (insert name)'s brains splattered in that alley 'cause a cell phone could be a lot of things in the dark but an unregistered 9mm semiautomatic fired over the shoulder can only be one thing an eraser a broken taillight in broad daylight a reaper eye contact, a counterfeit bill a death wish you ain't gon let your son go out like how they let (insert name) run just far enough to think himself safe before they shot you won't let the last time you see him whole be like when they threw (insert name) in the back of that van hands cuffed behind his back like (insert name) but he still managed to shoot himself like (insert name) his spine in pieces like (insert name) you want him home like putting curfew on (insert name)'s soul - too black to be out at night you ain't gonna be asking the news why they say (insert name) when they really mean (insert name) got Obama and Kamala callin' us (insert name) like they don't sit around callin' him (insert name) 'cause isn't that the right word? ‘cause you know ALL lives matter except (insert name) how lucky am i, to have (insert name) in my bloodline holy the way (insert name) keeps pushing my pen from heaven i flap my gums show the world the fist in my throat in honor of (insert name) but my mother begs me home from the protest says she can't go through what she went through with (insert name) says this hype over (insert name) will die just like (insert name) and i tell her i'd rather die for (insert name) a million times than die like (insert name) once
2 Comments
Chancy
1/23/2021 01:21:23 pm
Powerful!!!!
Reply
Carlene Gadapee
2/23/2021 06:35:56 am
I love the power of repetition (insert name)-- this poem just builds and builds. Nice work.
Reply
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