Associate Editor Lisa Low: At the beginning of Darius Simpson’s “What Don’t Kill You” is a heartbreaking pair of shoes in Akron, Ohio. As the poem continues, everyday images—a jersey, a dinner table—accumulate in the context of police brutality and grief experienced by Black communities. The poem turns in the second stanza, evolving into a litany that both acknowledges and subverts stereotypes. In the end, the anaphora reimagines a prayer or blessing and clarifies earthly logic.
To hear Darius read his poem, click below:
What Don’t Kill You
sundown is taking a lot more than what the earth bargained for
last week Mike went to ask the horizon where he got his shoes
came back with a pair of fresh ones just in time for the casket
last week a cop interrupted a pick-up game
tossed a child all the way up into the rafters
we had to take up a collection just to retire the jersey
when i ask if you ever forgot to hold your breath
on a slow drive past an overcrowded graveyard
what i mean is have you cried for no reason lately
when’s the last time you sat down for Sunday dinner
with a Black woman who keeps burying seats at the table
Akron is an empty Murray’s wave grease container
that hasn’t seen a boy in four days
my people’s children don’t go missing
my people’s children aren’t children at all
my people raise sidewalk hazards and classroom distractions
my people got a short-distance relationship with the afterlife
my people see a flood and can’t afford emergency evacuation
my people see The Bible’s wrath more often than its promises
my people so good at survival that death had to take a number
my people so good at survival the state reinvented its weapons
my people raze a plantation and just as easily raise a family
my people make outfit accessories outta silver lining
proof is in the mouthfuls of gold that woulda made Midas blush
proof is in the gospel sung while we lower our kin into soil.
Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry belongs to and with the masses. He aims to inspire those chills that make you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of Africans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People. Free The Land. Free All Political Prisoners.
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