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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by Danez Smith

i. Praise Song for N***a
Ghost still pace Georgia, hungry
for babies, for husbands, for something

                        to un-open the back.


We know what music accompanies


the mob, the robe, the rope the pickup or the horse, the blade
across our dark root, the fire, the star spinning from a tree branch
    was always


Nigger—Black Nigger—Nigger
People on couch
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