National Poetry Month Day 31: “Why R&B First Thing In The Morning, Why R&B Above All” by Angel Nafis

We’re never satisfied with the 30 days of poetry National Poetry Month allots, so we’re extending it by a day. We’d like to thank all the poets who shared their work with us this year. And here to take us out is Angel Nafis.

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Why R&B First Thing In The Morning, Why R&B Above All

because crooning is the breast milk of the motherless & all the birds are black
because the whole whiteworld a birdcage & my wicked is my sugar is my alchemy
because my nipple is certain against my bathrobe
& my round gut is full off my own dreaming

because breakfast sustains hope & the first meal is this: t​omorrow’s a rumor
because the low of my back believes what the sea told it
& prayer crowds in the nook of my sway

because what is promised raps at the window & field field field sky sky sky
because the ball gown boasts the beating & my own undecorated love belongs
because i must begin with this­­­–the breaking that fix

in the slow cut of first sun my name is a
wasps nest my endangered bones are sweet
a pill under god’s tongue.

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Angel Nafis is a Cave Cavem fellow and founder, curator, and host of the Greenlight Bookstore Poetry Salon. She is the facilitator of the IN REAL LIFE poetry workshop series at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center and the Author of BlackGirl Mansion (Red Beard & New School Poetics Press, 2012) She lives in Brooklyn.