Today's poem is by Kinsale Drake

How to be born in a country that measures your blood in their hands:
        What, for example, is born in England, but is never, not even on a cloudy day, English?
            —Bhanu Kapil

You must live
In the footnotes of a one-drop
rule.
Or blood quantum. Remember,
Never both. You must pull out
Your heart
In exchange for a card. Antithesis
To citizenship. Spit
At the border or they will send troops
And Custer look-alikes.
Always both.
And they will do it
Anyways. You must know
That we never wanted to be here
Either: Ghost
At the threshold. On the mantel,
Or kneeling
On a butter tin. I will teach you
How to steal your insides
Back. I will show you
What I know.

Tweet
Copyright © 2023 Kinsale Drake All rights reserved
from The Cincinnati Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission