Black Escapism

Faylita Hicks

Reading time: approx. 3 minutes

“Black Escapism” first appeared in Issue 14 of Tahoma Literary Review. Few works have struck me as immediately and as powerfully as this poem. After only a single reading, I knew I wanted to include it in the issue. Why? It examines an experience that is both ordinary and overlooked, and it lives in the close kinship between joy, agony, and survival. In this poem, Faylita Hicks provides us with an unforgettable glimpse into a very human truth. We’d love to know what you think of it. Let us know by posting over at our Facebook page, or reaching out to us on Twitter. Enjoy the reading!

Mare Heron Hake

Poetry Editor

—

When we finally begin to break,

our bones shattering under the serrated tongue

of a scalpel in our beloved brother’s hands,

after knowing our father’s steel motive,

weighted ardently upon the strident chords

cocooned in our flightless bodies,

in accordance with the wool laughter

stretched too thinly across our mother’s chin, agile

as the buffed legs of any loose muse liquored,

we will itch to taste the sweet vinegar graze of Joy—

a finite whiskey—hurried down our throats. As a deterrent of sorts,

it will roar gloriously into our gut, bubble against our lips

like laughter. A final offense against the defiling hour—

a final defense against the sluggish corrosion of our pitiful outfits,

a final relief to these skins we have become too accustomed to.

Before we are forced to surrender to one of our many kinds of death,

we will let Joy sear every inch where breath once belonged,

until pain is phantom and we stand no more.

****

reprinted with the permission of the poet

Faylita Hicks had this to say about this work:

I was sharing memes with some friends when I came across one that pointed out that Black people laugh differently, sometimes with our whole bodies. It made me think about Black joy and how throughout our history, our joy has been labeled dangerous or frightening by those who do not understand our extreme and nuanced reactions to humor or good news. In this poem, I try to describe how joy is what allows us to deal with the many kinds of pains that come with living in the Black body; how—in a way—it prepares us for death.

Faylita Hicks is a black queer writer. She was a 2018 PEN American Writing for Justice Fellowship finalist, a finalist in the 2018 Cosmonaut Avenue Annual Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2018 Yes Yes Books Open Reading Period. Her debut book, HOODWITCH, is forthcoming October 2019 with Acre Books. She is on Twitter and Instagram @faylitahicks.