How did you learn to speak English?
Fresh Prince / Freddie Gibbs / John Singleton flicks /
Rakim / OutKast / “talking heads” & Big Tech / B.I.G. &
Big Daddy Kane / i tried to exorcise Black pain w/ tragi-
comic irony / & some nights / the poltergeists came for me /
shrouded my pillow in picaninny shadows / spit /
was wild critical / i had an odd-metered sense of timing /
i wanted to file off & cascade / erode after-hour thought-
barbs / punitive / grandiloquent / the glow-
red steel brand of language / i wanted to wash over it
in a stream of arpeggios / my diction was afflicted
by an awareness of human scrutiny / which / looking
back / produced one or two wrong / notes / i needed to
slow down & i did leave pockets of air here & there
for ad lib & care until i learned to sing inside them
