Isaac Pickell
if black were human
it would be already
if you were breathing
you would be all ready
for all of their bark,
if opinions were just
like assholes after all
& not the trap
doors in our dying box,
if brown were human
it would already be
clear there was not
enough for everyone,
& that not enough
was the problem
& not all of us,
scared white as human
after being reminded:
if human were enough
it would be already.
Isaac Pickell is a passing poet and Ph.D student at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he studies and teaches the borderlands of black literature. His work has recently been featured in Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Fence, Sixth Finch, and Social Text, and his chapbook everything saved will be last is on presale over at Black Lawrence Press.
