Burn.
The nation is burning.
Long before George
and Breonna
before Atatiana,
Mike and Philando
before Yusef’s 16-year-old black body
was found bloodied
bullet-ridden
in Bensonhurst
before crack rocks cooked
in sooty pipes
over high flames
before Bushwick’s Broadway burned in 77
We have blazed.
Do you know the anatomy of a fire?
The head
its fastest moving portion
flames beside it
its flanks
heel or tail
its slowest moving stretch
A fire’s head is its greatest sweep
in length
depth
speed
Wailing sirens
twisted johnny pumps
snapping canines
The head
in all its bountiful glory
and thickened rage
gets the most aggressive attack
The nation is burning.
This muthafucka been ablaze.
Black at the head
Black under siege
Black the most furious
flame
The nation is burning.
Black will deliver its ashes
and curate its remains
The nation is burning.
Black will deliver its ashes
and curate its remains.
The nation is burning.
Black will deliver its ashes.
Black will curate its remains.
Burn.
Nicole Shawan Junior was bred in the bass-heavy beat and scratch of Brooklyn, where the cool of inner-city life barely survived crack cocaine’s burn. She’s a black, queer and poverty-born counter-storyteller. Her writing appears in Lambda Literary's anthology Emerge, Roxane Gay’s Medium platform Gay Mag, ZORA, The Feminist Wire, Color Bloq, CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action, and more. She’s a Hedgebrook Writer in Residence as well as alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Writers Week, Lambda Literary’s Emerging Voices Writer's Retreat, Tin House Workshop, VONA, and more. To learn more about Nicole, visit www.NicoleShawanJunior.com.