By Mahogany L. Browne

the best time as a teenager:
be a bottle of cisco & a sideshow
at the uptown gas station.

after Kenny’s body was bludgeoned by his girlfriend & her two brothers

ain’t no one to tell us we couldn’t can’t
talk loud & follow our e c h o e s
ragged w/haunt & laughter.

before Andre lived to tell about his hit & run accident @ the homecoming party

brown limbs held forty ounces & each other’s ego//
a delicate enchantment.

after Andre was left for dead in a stalled car a year later

the air c r a c k l e( d)
& the tires squeal(ed) a lullaby in the emptying parking lot
we abandone our smiles for scowls

before Shawn’s body flew through the car windshield

all we know is move & drink & swivel & the promise of death
for our kind of brown (only) worthy of
a casket caked by the dust
of black bones