#nate marshall
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aubade for the whole hood
Nate Marshall
today i offer my self
all the small kindnesses.
i’m out here
with breath in my body
though it may be stank
& body in my control
though it may be too soft
or too large or not enough.
today i offer the whole crib
a jam we ain’t heard in a minute
& permission to turn the news down
& move a hip like a suggestion
to a lover.
on this day i declare the pockmarked
street i grew up on a miracle.
i declare the bills, even the overdue
ones, a blessing. who knew
that we would still be here
to see these injustices. how can we measure
the disrespect of lack against that precious surprise?
real talk,
today i tell myself truths
other than the one that makes me low,
i give myself the gift of a joke with the homies.
real talk,
today i stay woke
to all the terror
but also to my favorite food
or my favorite place
or my best hope for our people
& i work to make all
my best lives possible.
==
Today in:
2020:Keeping Things Whole, Mark Strand
2019:New Year’s Day, Kim Addonizio
2018:I Know You Think I’ve Forgotten, Jane Hirshfield
2017:The Writer, Richard Wilbur
2016:from Seven Skins, Adrienne Rich
2015:I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life, Mary Oliver
2014:In the Park, Maxine Kumin
2013:To A Sad Daughter, Michael Ondaatje
2012:My Dead Friends, Marie Howe
2011:Staying After, Linda Gregg
2010:Dream Song 14, John Berryman
2009:What We Kept, Megan Alpert
2008:Please Take Back the Sparrows, Suzanne Buffam
2007:It Happens Like This, James Tate
2006:Tantalus in May, Reginald Shepherd
2005:September Song, Geoffrey Hill
