Two Poems, Darius Simpson

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

colonialism

contaminated river water bottled for profit and loss of life 

or the process by which genocide fashions prison bars 

out of indigenous languages.

sample sentence:

were it not for colonialism Africa would be worth its weight

in gold instead of bloodshed; war is human; genocide is european.

see also: Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawai’i

imperialism

the process by which minding another country’s business 

inhibits that country’s ability to build generational health 

an interference during a game where the loudest bomb sets 

the rules and refuses to play by them.

sample sentence:

Africans would have won more wars against colonizers

but imperialism made diplomacy a lucrative cover-up for exploitation.

capitalism

a system in which there are workers and people who own workers 

slavery by any other name still wakes you up at 5am

drenched in sweat from a nightmare about forgetting to clock in.

sample sentence:

if you peek behind capitalism’s curtain you see a person who is less

than 10% a person holding a whip shaped like a rental agreement telling a stage full 

of longshoremen when to use the bathroom.

 

revolutionary

someone committed to humanity rooted in understanding 

freedom is non-negotiable; a person who has decided 

that living is worth dying for.

see also: Assata Shakur, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jalil Muntaqim

sample sentence:

you can throw a rock over a prison wall

and a revolutionary will throw it back with a love letter attached.

poet

a would-be revolutionary grappling with capitalist 

obligations and colonial control of printing presses..

sample sentence:

liberation is for everybody and the poet is just one of the many 

everybodies see also: June Jordan, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Jamil Al-Amin

liberation

when a strong wind pretending to be a steam roller 

meets a people who cannot be flattened 

the process by which chains are broken

and the people who owned the chains

and made the chain uniforms

and invested in the stock market of chains

and built the chain-making factories

must answer for their crimes.

sample sentence:

liberation called Africa with the americas on 3-way 

apartheid survivors started whispering about tapped oil lines 

the call dropped somewhere over a 1989 atlantic ocean.

poem

an empty mason jar you fill with lightning bugs to guide the 

masses or pennies you collect in exchange for your soul.

sample sentence:

i submitted this poem to a journal that values diversity but they 

spent two years deliberating if off the pigs was literal or figurative.

CAPITOL CAPITAL

burnt wooden window panels make for opaque daydreams 

downtown is a hell of a commute when morning fog wreaks 

stench of hot coals and lighter fluid steam hovers over 

traffic employees of the capitol building were left fuming

law says police protect capital by any force senate 

swore on a bible to become state property tiki torch 

mobs breach barricades with relative ease turns out 

white supremacy is palpable or class struggle is 

rooted in comparative safety

how can i make rulings on the state of this country

if i still have to feel the impacts of the state of this country 

my uncle warns me about the dangers of bacon grease

i take this to mean we don’t praise pigs or blood pressure is 

both fragile and sacred and we don’t waste it on people 

who exchange their identity for utility belts and flash bangs 

black cops aren’t safe at block parties after dark

black cops conceal badge numbers with familial ties to street names 

there’s a joke about occupation in the cooler next to the hennessy 

black politicians move across town in order to finally make an impact 

black politicians share bathroom breaks with [former] klan members 

there’s a joke about contradictions on the ballot this year

there’s a joke about democracy in the awkward 

silences between police helmets and confederate flags

there’s a joke about allegiances flapping in the hallway 

collecting dust on the top floor of the courthouse

there’s a joke about cotton in the jail cell below the judge’s gavel 

swaztikas make amerikkka take a hard look at its bloodline 

political theater don’t start til we believe in cheap magic tricks 

revolution don’t start til we stop believing in border patrols there’s 

a joke about job security during a global pandemic scattered on 

scraps of paper along the evacuated senate floor

we can’t mention grammatical differences between capital & capitol 

without mentioning the murder rate of empty congressional seats.

Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. He received his BA in Political Science from Eastern Michigan University and his MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Mills College. Darius was a recipient of the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.​ He hopes to inspire that feeling you get that makes you scrunch up your face after a good bite of  homemade Mac N Cheese. Darius' poems have appeared in POETRY Magazine, The Adroit Journal, American Poetry Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and others.