lifeinpoetry:

I do not stand in the doorway and kiss my wife like I will never see
              her again
I do not say noose when I mean bullet
I do not say bullet when I am asked what keeps me awake at night
I do not keep track of the names
I do not keep track of my own body
I do not look at graves
I do not look at televisions
I do not look in the eyes of the interviewer
when he asks how there can be so much violence in my poems
I do not look honest enough to survive

I have maybe left my home
for the last time

— Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, ‘Do Not Call this “War”’, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much