fumes bloomed from a trash can
finna make my last dance this trek
up the stairs to my apartment door

some Star Wars anime pastiche
on pause         i was coughing out a sky
when i heard these bars

my voice or Spirit’s voice        does it matter
at all ? i had a duel with my shadow & lost
i’m grateful my sister calls

i’m grateful smoke don’t stick to a word
or a wall          i’m grateful tears at my child
selves choral applause

oh festival of me         born again by dawn
sacrificing dry scalp to an oily palm
god of i & i alone        ancient as a song

pilot pen driven by ancestral sense
we’re rescuing pleasure from prison
the sun mimics my skin

Sean Avery Medlin writes raps, poems, and sometimes essays, while teaching young folks to do the same. Their art questions the limitations of Black masculinity, media representation, and personal narrative. Medlin’s work has been featured in Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Afropunk, Blavity, and Teen Vogue.

All of Medlin’s work is available online at superseanavery.com. 808s & Otherworlds: Memories, Remixes, & Mythologies is their debut collection of essays and poetry, available in audio and print everywhere books are sold in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.