POETRY

African American Abecedarian

By Thomas Kneeland     VOLUME 57 No. 2

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A is for announcements after the A-Selection at Azion Missionary Baptist Church. B is for beer-soaked rib tips at the family reunion. C is for caramel cake, for which you forget to place an order from Auntie Bettie before the holidays. D is for Don’t talk back to me unless you wantcho lips to beatcha to the hospital. E is for Eternal God, Our Father at the beginning of every solemn prayer. F is for what you better not come home with. Ever. G is for Go to school & getcho education ’cause we can’t afford to send you off to college with all these credit card bills. H is for Hot Tamales, Hot Wings, Hot Lay’s, Hot Cheetos & Hot Fries for sale by the snackman before class. I is for in-school-suspension for texting the girl you have a crush on, from someone else’s phone because you couldn’t have a phone until after high school. J is for jankin’ in class when the substitute teacher makes it clear that she’s only there for a paycheck. K is for any girl fine enough to not talk to you, ’cause if you text her, that’s all the response you’ll get. L is for living with you my whole life. M is for making it out without murder on my fingers. N is for new student orientation at a PWI in the Midwest. O is for obedience to God & this church right before plunging into a sanctified bathtub. P is for passing the blunt for the first time at five in the morning, watching & listening for sunrise on a campus housing rooftop. Q is for questions about race & identity & why I’m never good enough to have what they have. R is for resting for the first time in eighteen months in an Airbnb in Washington, DC. S is for silence in rest, in oppression, in peace, in order, in nature, in maturity, in living, in knowing, in justice, in individualism, in heritage, in genocide, in faith & failure, in escape, in derailing, in calling for ceasefires, in begging, in absence. T is for trials & tribulations. U is for undermining authority for what we know is just. V is for violins by Black musicians only. W is for Wite-Out painted nails in middle school. X is for an unknown variable used to solve for Y. Z is for the zephyr that blows in late evening summers in the hood, when the clouds have all passed & all that is left is the promise of sky setting behind Black silhouettes.

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THOMAS KNEELAND is the author of We Be Walkin’ Blackly in the Deep (Marian University Department of Media, Communication, and Design) and a 2022 Frontier Poetry Global Poetry Prize finalist. He is a 2024 Speculative Play & Just Futurities Scholar-in-Residence, which is funded by Indiana University, the Mellon Foundation, IUI Arts & Humanities Institute, IUI Center for Africana Studies & Culture, and the Ray Bradbury Center. He is also the founder & editor-in-chief of The Elevation Review. His publication credits include The Amistad, The Rumpus, Vagabond City Lit, Up the Staircase Quarterly, South Florida Poetry Journal, and others. Thomas earned a BA in English writing from DePauw University, an MA in ministry from Wesley Seminary, and an MFA in poetry from Butler University.


VOLUME 57 No. 2