Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
Duplex
by Jericho Brown
I still believe in God. What else keeps me
From slaughter? Who else holds the butcher’s hand?
Sweet slaughter. Though I’d pray, Give me butcher’s hands,
Matthew baked me cakes as if I could be saved.
He baked spice cake, humming as if we were safe,
As if this weren’t the land of milk and money.
We can’t survive this nation of white money,
Says the black man as his excuse for malice.
What black man needs an excuse for malice?
Why mask the salt? No sugar is that sweet.
My pressure’s high. No sugar could make me sweet
If he came back today, if he forgave me.
Since he won’t come back, won’t forgive me,
I believe in God. Who else would keep me?
Copyright © 2019 by Jericho Brown. This poem was originally published in The Progressive Magazine (2019).
About the Author
Jericho Brown is the author of The Tradition, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.
Queer Poem a Day
Queer Poem-a-Day is founded and co-directed by poet and professor Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Library and host of the Deerfield Public Library Podcast. Music for this fifth year of our series is “L’Ange Verrier” from Le Rossignol Éperdu by Reynaldo Hahn, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.
