Thicker Than Water
for Tim

By Venus Thrash

We are fierce
adventurers crisscrossing
Chocolate City,

hitting clubs just after sundown,
avoiding big-armed bouncers
demanding money at the door.

We traverse more terrain
in search of sin
than John Newton sailed

on the Middle Passage
hauling human cargo.
We sing Amazing Grace

before a black, gay God
on back row pews
we bless with our own holy water.

Our dark kisses
thick and humid
as DC summer nights.

We stand as the Sphinx
made of ashes and dust.
Malcolm X Park, our Giza.

We are Pharaohs
untouched, unharmed by time
or haters of men like us.

You, Khafre.
I, Djedfre. Brothers.
In war. In blood. In love.

We have been here before,
our brown bodies laid bare,
embraced in the warmth

of this ancient sun.

Copyright © Venus Thrash. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the author.

Venus Thrash received a BA in Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. Her poetry has been published in Gargoyle, Catalyst, Beltway Quarterly, and other literary journals. Her short story, Cast Away Stones appears in Enhanced Gravity, an anthology of fiction by women.

Copyright © 1997-2008 by Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

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