Upon My 43rd, Despite Everything
1 min readSep 11, 2017
after Lucille Clifton
come celebrate with me
this life I am fashioning
out of despair tinged with
the strangest most unworthy hope
blessed with many a model
who all died too young
born into Babylon
on ancestral lands stolen
just as I was taken from them
Red and Black
Queer and Crip
I defied assumptions
saw myself in everyone
and in no one
I made my self up
and still do so every day
here at the border
knowing I belong in neither land
belonging to the sea instead
She takes me by the hand
tells me to wait a while more
my peace is not just yet
my work is not yet done
come celebrate another year
around the sun
another year I have survived
though every day there is
something from inside
and some things from outside
that tried to kill me
but they all continue to fail
