Mahogany L. Browne

i look into the noise          mouth paper thin my tongue a scatter of forgotten belongings extinguishes the heat of home *once, my mother plagued a painting       swept oceanic throughout the dreams of a brown man in lower manhattan         three years later           she sun rose in california        swan dove into an oblique woman there are days i forget my name my name  i forget my claim    this kind of fire       that strikes black bodies into fever spliff        clean        cleaner, still   ain’t no mountain of needles or glass        pipes large enough to tow away my body       today, my mouth is a tomb      of the things people forget      such a power my maw, this spill wonder, this rapture of psalm      ain’t no way             I let the sun                      set us afire        again

Each flower a wilting sun The death of a new day is never kind Grief ain’t no song No loss is this romantic

Beside the tree Beside the chair Beside the house Beside the pit Beside the tree stump Coco say don’t climb / so I don’t / I sit & stare — my skin coming dark and burnt They say: tire I say: brown They say: Black Black can’t take back! & I don’t I learnt to not ask where I’m from I learn to listen, then not I’m too scared they gone tell me the things about myself I done already buried in the dark Beside the tree  Beside the chair     Beside the house    Beside the pit Beside the tree stump         I sit       I sit        I sit        ’til no one even know I’m (t)here