Dad Bod

Why they making / me read this when I got / no vote

A photo of the poet, Shane Book, who stares at the camera with a serious expression. Behind him is a purple background in three shades, from light to dark.
The Walrus

I want to be happy
fuck you. Low-rider magazine
easy-load for the AK
in a Black Liberation
Army birthday
type o’way. First thing
Imma do is grow
my movement beard,
feel some type o’way.
But you must live
in the Midwest,
be so inside
these landscaped brethren
like a new gold scarf
underwater. Why they making
me read this when I got
no vote. Pernicious malarial citizen
rocking the argue mandible,
it heard us. Say we’re
the sunny-side strangler
so what. This was
the new language.

Shane Book
Shane Book is an award-winning poet and filmmaker. His writing has appeared in more than twenty anthologies, including The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry.