Dang You Then a Dang

And trip me up
a startled robbed way

Dreamt a burnt stump
for a tongue

          Ash-haired girl
              Cowbell girl

The white American
Veteran said    Children

like you played
in the garbage

(Leftovers)

She said “I left my ease here”
heavy trays    trick knee

The trick of the model
minority     ( a favored

yet shitty condition )
We rung up the diction-tones

to be proud        we were
“I threw you away”

and old skins shed
as a Silver Snake (1941)

Sweet toddler on the
crook of her hip

Source: Poetry (July/August 2017)