A Black Man Primer
if in a car remain calm
at the one eye cyclops:
pullover. place hands
at eleven & three, assume
this will not go okay. recall
brown, bell, martin, a trail
of blood. ignore the raven
hovering the rooftop. it’s not
a matter of respect, speech
or liberty, understand
survival be now, if you
survive. swallow that pride
as it can foster death. forget
all men all created equal—
24 hour news cycle reveal:
unarmed furgeson man shot
with hands in the air .or.
police chokehold turns wrong
in staten island. again, ignore
the raven & please remember:
you the invisible boogie mane,
a 3D fright, a proletariat
coming home with attitude.
open season means you baby boy—
the target zeroed into
a circling bull’s-eye—you
this not a game or test, but
sadly, you the game. facts
will be misremembered: he
lunged, appeared to have—
a bulge, looked wronged,
reached. a shiny object—
the raven hovering wants
your death. fuck that,
take a breath, & prepare
for the figure approaching—
Invisible Privilege on the One Train
fast as the sun swells into a fireball
parallel whose length which to gaze
distance between infinity plus one
becomes problematic. falling through
zero in the dark objects appear closer
but more so time bends space warped
spotlighting race. we don’t get to
withdraw from the tête-à-tête with
i don’t see color. riotous how color see
the lone figure
aureate & delicate,
priceless in its referent to the west.
stabbing through impenetrable veils
of ignorance dunce-like, the lone figure
inside a metal train car, drowning
head first in a quicksand full of lies.
Randall Horton
Issue 16 • Fall 2015