Bringing the Shovel Down

Contents

Contents Nursery 1 Love, You Got Me Good 4 For Some Slight I Can’t Quite Recall 5 The Syndromes: Doubling 6 Bringing the Shovel Down 7 Bull Dragged from Arena 10 American Dreaming 11 The Syndromes: Memorial Syndrome, or Memory 12 Glass 13 The Lion and the Gazelle 17 The Syndromes: Cartographer’s Syndrome 20 Axe Blade 21 Isaac 22 Prayer for My Unborn Niece or Nephew 23 Love, I’m Done with You 26 Solidarity 27 The Syndromes: Horologist’s Syndrome 28 Hollywood 29 Within Two Weeks the African American Poet Ross Gay Is Mistaken for Both the African American Poet Terrance Hayes and the African American Poet Kyle Dargan, Not One of Whom Looks Anything Like the Others 30 Some Instructions on Black Masculinity Offered to My Black Friend by the White Woman He Briefly Dated: A Monologue 31 gay pages-2.indd 9 10/18/10 11:20 AM The Syndromes: The Burden 32 From My Car on Broad Street 33 Praising the Snake 34 Poem to My Child, If Ever You Shall Be 35 Love, Here’s the Deal 38 Say It 39 The Syndromes: Mason’s Syndrome 42 Ode to the Beekeeper 43 Ode to the Tongue Orchid 44 Ode to the Redbud 45 Overheard 46 Opera Singer 47 The Syndromes: Undertaker’s Syndrome, or Gravedigger’s Syndrome 49 Learning to Speak 50 A Poem in which I Try to Express My Glee at the Music My Friend Has Given Me 52 Because 54 Sorrow Is Not My Name 56 The Syndromes: Raining, or Washing 57 Again 58 Notes and Acknowledgments 63 gay pages-2.indd 10 10/18/10 11:20 AM Bringing the Shovel Down gay pages-2.indd 11 10/18/10 11:20 AM gay pages-2.indd 12 10/18/10 11:20 AM ...