Celebrate

By Rickey Laurentiis

for l. Clifton


I will celebrate with you woman, nonwhite
and mother of my flesh, the rude


knives that buckle at your breath, the kind
that sort of shape and knock my throat. I will


celebrate in my malesuit, with this flip privilege
folded between my thighs, being


nonman, a chassis hollowed at the sound
FAG squeaking by. Let us celebrate,


for I've been to the levee's teeth, where slave
heads meet upon their stakes at the river, and


I've known so many men, and women, who have
tried this murder, who have tried.



RickeyL.jpg Rickey Laurentiis is a native of New Orleans and current undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals, such as Thieves Jargon, Shakespeare's Monkey Revue, SLC Review and At-Large Magazine, among others. He enjoys being Aquarius and reading on black queer studies.—www.myspace.com/rickeylaurentiis