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| Titus Kaphar - | Behind the Myth of Benevolence, 2014 |
GHAZAL
Name a song that tells a man what to expect after prison;
Explains Occam’s razor: you’re still a suspect after prison.
Titus Kaphar painted my portrait, then dipped it in black tar.
He knows redaction is a dialect after prison.
[br][br]From inside a cell, the night sky isn’t the measure—
that’s why it’s prison’s vastness your eyes reflect after prison.
[br][br]My lover don’t believe in my sadness. She says whisky,
not time, is what left me wrecked after prison.
[br][br]Ruth, Papermaker, take these tattered gray sweats.
Make paper of my bid: a past I won’t reject after prison.
[br][br]The state murdered Kalief with a single high bail.
Always innocent. Did he fear time’s effect after prison?
[br][br]Dear Warden, my time been served, let me go,
Promise that some of this I won’t recollect—after prison.
[br][br]My mother has died. My father, a brother & two cousins.
There is no G-d; no reason to genuflect, after prison.
[br][br]Jeremy and Forest rejected the template, said for
it to be funky, the font must redact after prison.
[br][br]He came home saying righteous, coochie, & jive turkey.
All them lost years, his slang’s architect after prison.
[br][br]The Printer silkscreens a world onto black paper.
With ink, Erik reveals what we neglect after prison.
[br][br]My homeboy say he’s done with all that prison shit.
His wife & baby girl gave him love to protect after prison.
[br][br]Them fools say you can become anything when it’s over.
Told ’em straight up, ain’t nothing to resurrect after prison.
[br][br]You have come so far, Beloved, & for what, another song?
Then sing. Shahid you’re loved, not shipwrecked, after prison.
[br][br]©2019 by Reginald Dwayne Betts, from Felon, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY
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