every man you meet is someone
who convinces you he is a chair
shows you he’s not
not worthy of an apology nor asking for it
finished carrying past mistakes to term
i’m not used to being awake when i don’t want to be
awake in objectless yearning taken as recklessness
how many white men play hip-hop/r&b to have sex
how many BBCs respond when 1 white man hits them
to fuck then cap and say it’s a relationship
how many black men call up black men
to fuck then cap and say it’s a relationship how many
black men call up black men for long-term relationships
for real for real we’re cooked hands and legs folded
up together too for the streets for the streets
Kami Enzie a Vienna-born, New Orleans–raised queer Black writer, is a recent Iowa MFA grad and 2024 winner of the poetry contest for the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival. Work appears in Chicago Review, Common Place, The Poetry Review, and Quarter Notes. (IG/X: @yungwerther)