Broken Ghazal in the Voice of My Brother

Irrefutable fact / my brother is black jewish

Kink hair & a wide nose / that’s gotta be black, jewish

He said look in the mirror / naked / if it ain’t black—jewish

If we don’t do it to ourselves / first / then they do it to us

Said he loves countin’ stacks / is that black? / jewish?

Said we loves eating chicken cause we black-jewish!

Said, you gotta keep it real / listen to black music
If you wanna keep your teeth / you ain’t allowed to act jewish

And that’s jewish / Night of the broken glass jewish

They’ll beat your face in with a bat / until its black.

They raped your great grandma, and that’s a fact, jewish

Say a prayer for the secrets your family keeps, Kaddish

See Aaron, you run / but I learned to attack: jewish

In order to survive, you gotta be black, stupid

Let ‘em tattoo my arm, that’s how I act Jewish

That’s how I be black / but that’s not what you did

Got yourself a “good job,” where nobody’s black / jewish

Cut the slang off your tongue / it’s too black; jewish

And, you never came home / Aaron / where it’s black-jewish

And not coming home / is black

jewish

Joy

My dad gave me an ice cream cone the first time
I was suspended from school.  Let’s cut to the chase—
racism.  My only mistake was that I played tag with
a white girl.  A teacher confused our joy for violence.
I remember the first time I felt joy
I was two and found a pool cleaning net,
the small ones made with a hollow rod, to grab
the leaves and insects from the surface.
My first friend, Zachary, a white boy,
ran away screaming while I held this weapon
with new strength.  Leveling the net

over his womb-curls, drinking in my first capture.
Years later, when I am surrounded
by twelve boys, without hesitating,
I break the biggest one’s nose.  I crush it first
with my hand, then my boot, then hold his
curls in the net of my fingers as I clap his head—

an applause against the sidewalk.
This is the part where I am suspended,
or where I am my father, or his father,
where I remember the first time I found this feeling

and hold it behind my teeth,
as my smile grows larger,
with every strike.