Winner of the 2022 DISQUIET Prize for Poetry
“if you’re ever lonelayyyy, stop, you don’t have to be.”
—Powerline
you, thrust open leather vest glisten chest in the desert
you, both knee beggin in silver pants plus rain
you, break a lover wide to see what lyrics may flow
chorus basically a moan stretched out the measure
of a messy long distance relationship run its course
and the reason i know Max was a Black boy
and you was the first star he seen sparkle his hue
VHS says fiction but i recognize them shoulders
descendent of moonwalk-glitter-glove solos
i know a bad mufucka by how the spotlight
don’t even add much to the performance
i know Jodeci’s lost member when i see it
Sisqo’s inspiration for Afrofuturist aesthetic
heard it’s a planet out there missin a spades partner
heard it’s a sunrise somewhere waitin to go down you
the one who taught me if you love someone
you better get on stage and make em feel
like the only person in a packed auditorium
like the last scoop of warm peach cobbler
another Black superhero with another
electric superpower / the jig is up
Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living-room dancer from Akron, Ohio. He 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.
