“What did they do
during the Black Plague?”
I ask.
My friend,
who is Black,
like me,
takes a drag
from his
cigarette,
in defiance of
both God
and cancer,
then answers:
Drink.
Pray.
Die.
1.
I am 24 years old
and already so
acquainted with death.
When my brother turned
22
we went rollerskating.
He glided
around
the rink,
Black boy joy
personified.
When I asked
if he wanted
to go dancing,
or to karaoke,
mark his
milestone
in any of the
usual ways,
he took a swig
from a fifth
of whiskey
and said
“If I make it to
25
we’ll turn up then.”
That ‘if’
burrowed itself
in my chest
and I have been
carrying it with me
ever since.
2.
When my grandmother
tells me
she is tired.
What I hear
is
“I am ready.”
I do not blame her.
Existence is exhausting
especially in this skin
and the world
is cruel.
When I tell my mother
about anger,
about the hopelessness
that threatens
to swallow me whole
she pats my hand,
tells me she
remembers that fire,
but that things
do not improve,
then offers me
a platitude
about God’s grace
and the evil of men.
3.
I am so tired
of seeing my people
buried
before we are
even allowed to
live.
Replaceable and then
essential.
Immune and then most
vulnerable.
And didn’t we know
this all along?
Don’t we laugh
because we feel
the reaper’s noose
at our necks
even now?
Don’t we know
that our laughter
is proportional
to the strength
in our limbs
and the breath
in our lungs?
Don’t niggers laugh loud
and run fast?
Don’t they always
catch us anyway?
Black people are more likely to die of covid-19 than any other group in the U.S.
By the Numbers:
- 70%: The percentage of people who have died of COVID-19 in Louisiana that are Black, compared to 33% of the population
- 40%: The percentage of people who have died of COVID-19 in Michigan that are Black, compared to 14% of the population
- 72%: The percentage of people who have died of COVID-19 in Chicago that are Black, compared to 29% of the population
I wrote this poem after reading an article in the The New Yorker called “The Black Plague,” detailing the systemic and historical inequities that have led Black people to die of covid-19 at higher raters than any other group in the U.S. The article goes beyond citing underlying conditions to explain the reasons for our underlying conditions, and ends with this line:
To fulfill the promise that black lives matter, the United States must change in systemic and not superficial ways.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The Black Plague
Last week, the president announced his plan to re-open the American economy, despite acknowledging that doing so will lead more people to die. Most of those people will be Black.
So tell me, does my Black life matter?
one black experience 