Grandmother’s farm and other good investments
When I was young, I could still remember a future
— Deborah Greene
We were born to the land
to work the land: I have discovered
overgrowth from my own
bedroom window: the complex
that’s rent controlled just
over the tops of family
homes and their income, ceilings:
despite our demands,
most roofs can’t be raised &
you are not allowed to feel sad about this:
some things are bad for you, but
good for prevention
as a policy against: your government
shutdown if not your utility
shutoff: everyone is eventually
shutout of somewhere,
even deep, dark holes echo
overdue hopes waiting to flicker
out with some ancient reprisal: some words
live forever on the lips of the past, abiding
its endlessness and only appearing to be
trapped, like distant light takes
just as much time as it takes
to reach you: just like starlight, your reparations
reach you where money can no longer buy
happiness [a psyop all along] under the dirt
where you learned what fingernails were for,
where you learned what grows from nothing,
dirt teaching no one but time
keeps anything forever, even the dirt
you were promised: 300 acres after inflation
sold at auction to traders with good interest
interest rates promising the finest families
your home: none of the old only the good
bones. concrete and acres
of matching shingles, leaving you
dirt compressed by the structures
to make your own air. so writhe:
we’re all worms here or soon
to be shit from one. for now,
there’s no telling how much
your pain is worth.
a forest is a map & a business plan, indelible
on the bark the moment
we recognized we could burn
wood & call it technology, draw our own
clear horizon from what was only smudge.
Isaac Pickell
Isaac Pickell is a biracial, passing poet & PhD student in Detroit, where he teaches and studies the borderlands of black literature. He is the author of the chapbook everything saved will be last (Black Lawrence Press, 2021) and It’s not over once you figure it out, a full-length collection forthcoming from Black Ocean. His most recent work can be found in Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, and Passages North. Isaac’s taken a seat in all fifty states and has so much to look forward to.