Camonghne Felix, 2017 Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow
6:30: Or, It’s All In My Head
"If this happens to you, what do you want me to do?"
"Burn the city down."
The poem could just die right here
but It is not at all tempered
not any of it real
I crawl into his lap, put my mouth
to his cheek and scream, holler, you can still hear me, can’t you?
I am incredibly generous this night, I say we can
watch anything you want my love
is a mourning animal
all I see is dead
men all I see is this
rotten, bulbous nightmare
looping, chasing your back down, clipping the
road in front I am only a warrior in my sleep,
who will I be in the 28 hours that follow only the body can tell really.
Camonghne Felix, M.A. is a poet, political strategist, media junkie and cultural worker. She received an M.A. in Arts Politics from NYU, an MFA from Bard College, and has received Fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo and Poets House. The 2012 Pushcart Prize nominee is the author of the chapbook Yolk, and was recently listed by Black Youth Project as a “Black Girl From the Future You Should Know.” Her first full-length collection of poems, Build Yourself a Boat, is a University of Wisconsin Press Brittingham & Pollak Prize finalist.