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andriniki mattis

each day a news headline extracts the lining of my throat

& leaves me that kind of broken
that must come with a warning label                before you break the seal

         a dirty aneurysm
         to be extinguished

                                     & no shoulder to crouch my weight into

how do you put isms into a time capsule

                                                         wearing the charge of my skin
                                                         in this adolescent world

                                                         the candle wick
                                                         in my eyes
                                                         buried in a forest

                                     what has emptied these eyes
                                                         poured out the hue
                                     cannot be caught in a screenshot
                                     or held by fingertips

                                     abyss of overgrown vines
                                                         emerging from behind my face
                                                         entangling my legs
                                                                                           to remain horizontal
                                                                                           wearing into a mattress

what the acceleration of the mind can do

how many days in bed will it take                to birth the planets burdening my chest
                                     a message in a bottle floating
                                     come to find shore in me

                                                         i let go my hand

                                                         each time the days refused to touch me

                                                         & watch the brace of my body             break

                                                         a shattered mosaic

                                                         returning to its former frame

angsty leaves brush against me
mistaken for beauty
                                     unlock my misplaced fury

                                                         this is the return

 

andriniki mattis is a Poet & Film photographer with a degree in Political & Poetic Resistance. He is a black queerboi from Crown Heights & is still standing. Currently he reads & writes in Brooklyn & is working on his first book Meditations from a Black Body. andriniki is a Cave Canem fellow whose work has appeared in Nepantla & is forthcoming in Paperbag Journal. Writings & updates can be found at andrinikimattis.com.

 

See full list of 2015 Emerging Poets Fellows