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# One Poem by Danez Smith
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/one-poem-by-danez-smith/
- Published: 2016-12-28T12:00:13.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:41:37.000Z
- Description: Our poetry editor, Wendy Xu, has selected one poem by Danez Smith for her monthly series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
- Author: Wendy Xu
- Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:23 (2016, 2017, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/12/img_6348cropped.jpg)

Glenn Ligon, “Prisoner of Love #1 (Second Version)” (1992) (detail), oil and gesso on linen, 80.25 x 30.13 x 1.38 inches, Collection: Carnegie Museum of Art; Founders Patrons Day Acquisition Fund (© Glenn Ligon; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London) (photo by Elisa Wouk Almino for Hyperallergic)

## my nig

this one isn’t about language  
but who the language holds

those niggas who say my name  
like it’s good news

those who let me know my blood  
is speckled sapphire. i’m in love

with purple gums, the yellow stain  
of front teeth, the bit of plaque

unbrushed & revealed when  
my niggas laugh. o loves

i know god is for i have seen you  
throw your cackle in the air

& watched the clouds turn heavy  
bronze, i have seen tears well

in the corners of your eyes  
when you are overcome with joy

& that little wet is all  
the sea i need to live.

we are alive & amen.  
someone of us are dead

but they are alive in us amen.  
heaven be your blunted breath

your chapped lips & sharp shade  
your ashy elbows & lotion prayers.

i need no church but my niggas’ arms.  
i need no savior but their love.

oh sweet god if you be my nigga  
don’t never take my niggas from me

less i be a black & yolkless shell  
less i be tabernacle at the bottom

of the sea, less i be whittled down  
to not a nigga but a n-word

one letter to say a thing about shame  
keep me free from that kind of hell.

let me live forever on the tongues  
on my people & when they gone

from this world then i have use  
for me, let me end when they end

let my breath jump off the cliff  
with them all, they me be a follower

into that greater world, where streets  
are paved with our enemies’ teeth

& the angels sing of Shine  
where the rivers flow milk & honey

& Hennessey & kool-aid &  
none of that, just give me

the heaven of now, give me  
days near water with my niggas

leave me be in the sun  
surrounded by my friends’ good

black as we all get blacker  
we caramelized children

of a darker god, we summer  
kin, august colored, my brick

colored friends, the safety  
that is they being, the peace

i feel when near their hands.  
hosanna the bridge over crossfire

they be when they press green  
in paper & seal with their lips, this

piff kiss, hosanna the rope  
that a text message be

for who knows how many  
times i was saved by the ding

of *hey, how you?* or *what you* 
*on, hoe?* bless the grace

of being bored with fam  
the heaven of my niggas

in a silent room, the holy  
of all that quiet which saves

me in my darkest hours. the only  
thing that kept the blade

from my wrist, closed  
the medicine cabinet was

the thought of my friends  
in a room dressed in a black

that is not their skin. how  
could i do that to them?

how could i deny us  
the grace of accidents

& old age, the laws of  
disease & holy sick?

there is already so much  
trying to end us so let

it not include our hands  
today, let us no be dead

& red handed for it  
not today, not never

not yet

\* \* \*

[Danez Smith](http://www.danezsmithpoet.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is a Black, queer, poz writer, and performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of[ ](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936919281/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com)[*\[insert\] boy*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936919281/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com)(YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and [*Don’t Call Us Dead*](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1555977855/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com) (Graywolf Press, 2017). Danez is also the author of two chapbooks, *hands on your knees* (2013, Penmanship Books) and [*black movie*](http://www.amazon.com/dp/194373500X/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com)(2015, Button Poetry), winner of the Button Poetry Prize. They are the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and is a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. Danez’s work has been featured widely, including on Buzzfeed, Blavity, PBS NewsHour, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They are a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, 3-time Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion, and a founding member of the Dark Noise Collective.

*Readers are encouraged to submit 3–5 poems as a PDF to Wendy Xu for consideration at* [*poetry@hyperallergic.com*](mailto:poetry@hyperallergic.com)*.*