I am proud that my poem “the patron saint of suicide” has been published in Cola Literary Review. You can purcahse a copy here.
This poem is based on the vastly superior poem “Googling the Patron Saint of Suicides” by the amazing Joan Kwon Glass and has a place in my forthcoming chapbook said the Frog to the scorpion from Harbor Editions.
“That’s some white people shit.”
“What?”
“Were all of the people who thought you were gay white?”
“It’s not that they thought I was gay exactly…”
“Not straight. Whatever. Were all of them white?”
“No.” I mentally scroll through faces and races. “Yes?”
“See? You don’t fit their Black-Man stereotype, other than dating white women…”
“Hey…”
“Whatever nigga: you do you. I’m just saying you don’t fit their image of what a Black man is ‘supposed’ to be. You’re not some overly masculine thug, sitting on a stoop, rocking a durag and sipping a 40. A sensitive and educated Black man, who works with kids seems femme to them. So, they assume you’re not straight.”
“No, V. That can’t be it.”
It was.
Redivider 20.1 | Cover art — Tea Queen by Aaron Norfolk
He knows the myth, but he is the model minority. The all-around A-student: attentive, astute, Asian. He’s good at math and science, but also garners excellent grades and respect in my sophomore honors English class. He’s soft spoken, but thoughtful. So as the others call out, he raises his hand and waits patiently. When I acknowledge that he will be next, he lowers it back to his desk, places the other over a delicate wrist. When he does speak, on an average Wednesday, I will swear in front of a class for the first time in twenty years of teaching.
Update: Presence Journal has nominated this poem for possible inclusion in Orison Books' annual Best Spiritual Literature anthology!
Note: This poem takes its title from a line in Shūsaku Endō’s novel Silence.
