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# A Poem by Reginald Dwayne Betts
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/one-poem-by-reginald-dwayne-betts/
- Published: 2015-09-09T11:03:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:43:06.000Z
- Description: Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected one poem by Reginald Dwayne Betts for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
- Author: Joe Pan
- Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

*Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected a poem by Reginald Dwayne Betts for* [*his series*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/hyperallergic-poetry/) *that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.*

![Denis Darzacq & Anna Iris Lüneman, "Double Double Mix Nº33" (2015), inkjet print and earthenware (copyright Denis Darzacq & Anna Luneman, courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/09/doublemix1.jpg)

Denis Darzacq & Anna Iris Lüneman, “Double Double Mix Nº33” (2015), inkjet print and earthenware (copyright Denis Darzacq & Anna Luneman, courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery)

\* \* \*

## Elephants in the Fall

*for Micah and Miles*

I. Micah Michael Zamir Betts

November’s flame in that year of hard sunsets,  
of winter’s plangency & days when  
my insomnia courted cognac.  
All our thoughts were beginnings,  
& you became the roundness  
that grew to a moon  
above your mother’s hips.  
We waited without a name  
for your wonder  
& three days after your birth  
twice named you after the uncle  
you’ll never meet. The names  
questions: Micah, who resembles God.  
Michael, who reminds us of who has gone too soon.  
& we pronounced Micah as we wanted: Mekhi,  
because like the kid from *Clockers*,  
we scrape fists and cuffs for the dreams of you.  
& now, when on most days your body  
is all blur & bustle—

Our song is how right we got it,  
when the light from that moon spilled  
out of your mother’s belly, I tell  
you, you were smiling then,  
as if you knew you were the first song  
that found me worthy.

II. Miles Thelonious Betts

Named after the trumpet,  
after the sound that comes from all  
the hurt & want that leads a man  
to turn his back to the world. We named  
you after Monk, too,  
because sometimes you have to  
stack legends in a single body  
already big enough for the sound of them  
& we imagined that you gave us  
a different tune,  
a way to bang keys into each  
other until our lives  
filled with unexpected music.  
I hear you call me daddy  
in this land where my father’s  
name is sometimes another word  
for grave, & I almost pause. It’s the song

that wants to unravel me.  
More crow than  
swan, I’ve always been so much cage  
& caged in. & all that changes when we square  
the M. This old riff on a shotgun  
marriage calls us back:  
your mother’s hand in mine & the shotgun is  
what we aim at the world that threatens,

& I scoop you in my arms,  
& you are calling us. Again.

\* \* \*

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a husband and father of two young sons. His latest collection of poetry, *Bastards of the Reagan Era*, will be published in October 2015 by Four Way Books. Betts is a recipient of fellowships from Soros Justice Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies, and the Bread Loaf Writing Conference. In 2012, President Barack Obama appointed Betts to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, where he continues to serve as a practitioner member. He is the author of two additional books, the NAACP Image Award winning memoir, *A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison* and the collection of poetry, *Shahid Reads His Own Palm*. He received a B.A. from the University of Maryland, an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College’s M.F.A. Program for Writers and is currently a student at the Yale Law School.

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