blaack.
As an African American, I exist as/in the Black.
A noncitizen in a nonspace of subjugation, castigation, and dehumanization—in terms of the western world and the white imagination.
But, contrary to modern/enwhitened belief, the Black is not darkness. The Black is not unknown. The Black is not bereft. The Black is not void.
Everything everywhere comes from nothing nowhere. As do we.
The Black just is…
And so I emerge from the Black.
Soul intact. Determined to be.
Willed into reality by my own singularity.
Radically me.
Free.