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.