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Danez Smith is the author of the poetry collections (insert) Boy, Don’t Call Us Dead, and Homie. Their many honors include the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A finalist in the 2015 Narrative 30 Below Contest, Smith lives in Minneapolis.

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It began right here.

by Danez Smith
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A humbling at my knees. I let him record me doing it all.

I wanted to watch me be a monster later. I didn’t know



he’d leave me with all these vultures grazing my veins.


Me: the dead lion that keeps dying. Him: the flies that won’t leave



my
blood


alone.
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