Originally appearing in Flypaper Poetry Issue V. ![]() Kwame Opoku-Duku is a Ghanaian-American poet and fiction writer. He is the author of The Unbnd Verses (Glass Poetry Press, 2018), and his work is featured in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, BOMB, The Shallow Ends, The Literary Review, Bettering American Poetry, and other publications. Kwame lives in New York City, where he is a teaching artist, and along with Karisma Price, a founding member of the Unbnd Collective. Kwame is an associate poetry editor for BOAAT Journal, and supported by his residency with the Human Impacts Institute, he curates the reading series Dear Ocean. ii. dance moves
the old heads say the world is burning, watching youngins milly rock in the streets, bodies engulfed by the glow of their blackness, no fucks given, ain’t got time in these streets. and it’s true, really. the world is burning. at its core we’d evaporate like an orgasm in the night sky, have our souls flown to heaven by God’s benevolent birds. i used to be a youngin. i used to wild wilder than the wildest. i’ve watched young men of color spontaneously combust. these days, i evangelize like a dime store preacher, scrutinize the suits of other preachers, envy the humility of those more favored. i am so scared i want to die with my eyes open. i never turn my back on anybody, never trust without power. the devil preys in liminal spaces, uses pebbles instead of boulders, talking plenty slick, like he’s the only one who could really know God, who could really love Him. and you’ll say it’s more complicated. it’s always more complicated. i say, lord, take everything but my dance moves. i submit myself to your will. your grace a pashmina in the crisp new york air. i’ll lay myself prostrate and pray for more heat.
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