-Lake Orion, MI 2020
My mind tossed all night like
ragweeds caught
in a storm,
thinking of these words
Cut your hair tomorrow
what my mother said
to me after watching
a video where yet
another innocent
black man was killed.
This one going for a jog.
This one 23,701 days since
Emmett Till.
This one Ahmaud Arbery.
I lay in bed, picking at the
threads that keep me
together, looking for
what’s inside.
Will I find the shades of my
own strength?
Cut your hair tomorrow
her fear
that my long, curly,
Afro-Taino hair will be
nothing
but a black bulls-eye.
Cut your hair tomorrow
the words
I still heard as
I watched the video, as
he ran away,
collapsing.
Shot three times—
The bullets,
an ellipsis omitting
him from this
world…
_____
Sebastian Santiago is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, but grew up just outside of Detroit, MI. He attained his English degree from Central Michigan University where the focus of his studies was creative writing with a concentration in poetry. Sebastian was recently living in Prague teaching English, but has since moved back to the US where his focus is on attaining his MFA in creative writing. He has work featured, or forthcoming, in The Emerson Review, Poetry South, Up North Lit, BMP Voices and Rigorous among others
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