Poppy

I trembled. They said there was a, ‘Summer breeze.’

But I knew it was Speed’s bombed-down fuckeries.

I couldn’t kip. I got black eyes; they said, ‘Count sheep.’

I KO’d a zillion Codeine white lambs and still lost sleep.

When wet; the corner-man said, ‘It’s just a bout of precipitation,’

to a losing bet, wired & punch-drunk in a puddle of spit & perspiration.

I danced as they said, while the bare-knuckle bell kept clan-clan-clanging!

But I was on the ropes…a floundering featherweight, bloody and prangin.

- Cheyelle Omar

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