after Ross Gay
my father was most memorable as he stood in sun.
when summer grew loud & boastful, his chain held
onto the light the same as his skin & the thin border
between the metal & the brown would vanish, the chain
disappearing into his chest. as he was the father &
as i was the son, he gathered the bits of stone & metal
he had left & pressed them together with some quick
& torrid heat & pulled forth a smaller string
of jewelry & he opened wide the new chain’s mouth
& let my head glide through so its lips were strung
along my shoulders & too often have i seen some niggas
put themselves inside the mouth of a divine & unseen animal.
there is nothing like a glow along your body to bring attention
to where you are most vulnerable, the ways the heart
or the neck may lead to your undoing & i think my father knew
this & blessed me nonetheless, an anointing in the silk folds
of a moonless night & on the night my father died
he covered his body in olive oil before drifting
into a far away & unforgiving sleep & they found him like this
in his bed with the oil lined along the curve of his stomach
like it would often line the fingers of a grandmother
before she said a prayer over a child’s warm forehead.
& so my father died slick & with favor, leaving the world
the same way i imagine he entered. my father,
a glorious & polished thing. a fortune at heaven’s gates.
nothing hanging from his body but the thin thread of light
hanging from his neck. & look! —see? (the chain, the sunlight,
the heat’s long grin across our skin) it’s all related, friends.
sweat & touch & each one of our cravings. let me never forget
what i am even when i am not. body of tungsten, body of
summer. i’m a jewel, a perfect relic. my color is gold.