Sometimes Daily Poetry hits home... one more for you

When Puffy says, and we won’t stop, ‘cause we can’t stop.

~Rasheed Copeland

I think of a good night’s sleep

an exhale taking its precious time

to leave my lungs         unworried

about the breathing to come        If only

I did not hail from the sweet state

of panic                                the town’s river,

my adrenaline raging without cease

I’d love peace but the moon is pulling me by my water

I know this is no way to live    but I was born here

a mobile of vultures orbiting above my crib

the noise you speak      bragging

about the luxury of your stillness

reminds me that some children are told to pick flowers

while others are told to pick a tree switch

that’ll best write a lesson across their hide

and my skin is a master course written in welts

I touch myself and read about the years

I cannot escape                              I hold my kids

and pray our embrace is not a history

repeating itself

Copyright © 2020 by Rasheed Copeland. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 22, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.