The Shallow Ends
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n̶o̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶e̶e̶t̶

2/13/2020

 
                    by Aurielle Marie 

they called him Money
& he had none. i dont even
gotta tell you how funny that
aint. they called him June
mint or, that June, he tasted of
pepper. i forget. i remember
they called his hands to the front
the smoke was thick &
the bullets carved--
no. he had a name. i think
it was dark & my mouth
let out a sound & suddenly
there he was. grinning over
the sound of artillery &
bruise-laughter. you rang?
& i never asked for help
but i ended up saved. anyway
someone told me he died
casually. like the world
swallowed his noise & gave
us the broth to recall him by.
i laid with him & never
told no one. never called him
nothing but a cool blush of smoke.
he asked me to gift him a way
out, a name to be welcomed home
inside &  i couldn’t offer anything up,
not even all me.  anyway.
someone told me he died
casually. i called him up
& ask is it true? he say something
bout there being no war in the blues.
he aint answer my question. directly
after, the whole room got to
smelling like pepper. like June.
gun powder in a Ferguson
sky. & i be damned. there aint
no word to call this what it is.









​
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Aurielle Marie is a poet, essayist, and social strategist who identifies as Black, Queer and southern. She was selected by Fatimah Asghar as the 2019 winner of the Ploughshares Emerging Writer Award. She is the 2019 winner of the Los Angeles Review Poetry Award, and was the 2019 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer's Retreat Writer in Residence. Aurielle's essays and poems have been featured in or are forthcoming from The Guardian, TriQuarterly, Adroit Journal, Teen Vogue, The Florida Review, VINYL, BOAAT Magazine, Black Warrior Review, Essence, Allure, and the Huffington Post. She rants about justice and bra straps on twitter: @YesAurielle. 


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