FLYPAPER LIT
  • Home
  • ABOUT
    • HISTORY
  • CONTENT
    • POETRY
    • PROSE
    • ARCHIVES
    • MUSIC
    • COLUMNS >
      • TIMEFIGHTERS & UNBELIEVERS
      • unearthly horoscopes from your dreamy, vaguely occult ghost
      • Heartworms
      • Just Sucking
    • INTERVIEWS
    • REVIEWS
  • CONTACT

"ii. dance moves" by Kwame Opoku-Duku

11/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Originally appearing in Flypaper Poetry Issue V.​
Picture
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.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Jess Smith-
    Student Evaluations
    ​Jenny Irish- Rusalka
    ​Terri Linn David-
    For the Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits
    Darius Simpson- 2 Poems
    Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach-
    When my son says...

    Kaleigh O'Keefe- Autobiography of Joan of Arc
    Timi Sanni- In This World of Mysteries...
    Anna Attie- We Lose Her Over Facetime
    Ruth Baumann- 2 Poems
    Rob Colgate- Remember These Tulips
    Tasneem Maher- Pilgrimage
    ​Aerik Francis- Bebop
    ​Emily Blair- The best ham...
    Adrienne Novy- 2 Poems
    ​Daniel Garcia- 2 Poems
    Brendan Joyce- moving day
    ​Sanna Wani- 2 Poems
    Raphael Jenkins- 2 Poems
    Daniel Summerhill-
    2 Poems
    Ava Gripp- Your Grandfather Had Secrets
    ​stevie redwood- abolish the dead
    Ariel Clark-Semyck-
    2 Poems
    benedict nguyen- 2 Poems
    Gabrielle Grace Hogan-
    Girls Night at the Saturnine Aquarium

    Devin Kelly- 2 Poems
    Danielle P. Williams-
    Yutu 2018

    Alan Chazaro- In a Vernacular of Speculation
    Deema K. Shehabi-
    ​A Summer's Tale with Fire Birds
    Kayleb Rae Candrilli-
    2 Poems
    ​Julianne Neely- 2 Poems
    Jake Bailey- 2 Poems
    ​Fargo Tbakhi- 2 Poems
    Justin Phillip Reed-
    2 Poems

    Naomi Shihab Nye-
    2 Poems
    Keith Leonard- Jukebox
    ​CAConrad- 3 Poems
    ​Roya Marsh- for (insert name)
    ​Stephanie Kaylor- LONG DISTANCE
    Tongo Eisen Martin-
    A Sketch about Genocide

    ​Despy Boutris- BLOODTEETH
    JinJin Xu- Days of Hourless Mothers
    ​Ashley M. Jones- Flour, Milk & Salt
    Sam Herschel Wein- How To Cook Your Family
    ​Marianne Chan- 2 poems
    Jason Crawford- PReP
    Jee Leong Koh- 2 poems
    Geramee Hensley- Redundancy Limit
    Dustin Pearson- My Brother Outside the House in Hell
    DT McCrea- On occasion of my own death
    Noor Hindi- Unkept
    Lyd Havens- I only misgender myself when Fleetwood Mac comes on
    ​Linda Dove- Mid-Life with Teeth
    Stephen Furlong- I Don't Know About You, but Mostly I Just Want to be Held
    Dorothy Chan- Because You Fall Too Fast Too Hard
    ​Kevin Latimer- MIRAGE
    MJ- Let me be remembered as a mother
    Taylor Byas- Rooftop Monologue
    Matt Mitchell- FINE LINE TRIPTYCH
    ​Todd Dillard- Will
    ​Heidi Seaborn- Under The Bed
    Heather Myers- A Rainbow, Just For A Minute
    Donna Vorreyer- In The Encyclopedia of Human Gestures
    Conor Bracken- THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO TO A MAN
    Ben Purkert- 2 Poems
    Emma Bolden- What Women's Work Is
    ​Chelsea Dingman- Lockdown Drill
    Raych Jackson- Pantoum for Derrion Albert from the Plank
    Elliot Ping- in the eighth grade
    Devin Kelly- POEM FOR MY FRIEND MATT WHO AT THIS MOMENT IS RUNNING 300 MILES ACROSS TENNESSEE​
    Kwame Opoku-Duku-
    ii. dance moves
    D.A. Powell- Sneak
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • ABOUT
    • HISTORY
  • CONTENT
    • POETRY
    • PROSE
    • ARCHIVES
    • MUSIC
    • COLUMNS >
      • TIMEFIGHTERS & UNBELIEVERS
      • unearthly horoscopes from your dreamy, vaguely occult ghost
      • Heartworms
      • Just Sucking
    • INTERVIEWS
    • REVIEWS
  • CONTACT