tash nikol

Hand Clap Theory

Call on the Chariot
glory reach the Gospel Train
our fathers served
all them days without 
a dime’s reward
we waited so long
we done messed up 
and missed our reparations

on mondays, i look back at 
Sabbath’s face and see
a list of disappointments
things only taught 
by our earth mothers

Oral Histories: Invoking A Revolution 
Through Spirituals And Songs

a sermon from
the one tied to a 
cross-stitched 
hemp bound abscess 
the appendages 
that span entire
bloodlines

we try to transform
ourselves in the smoke 
casting off spells of
vetitver and lavender

luscious flowers that 
suffocate wrapped in 
weightless Cuban links
fools gold

the comfort of feelings 
we can’t recognize 
we recognize
what brought us here

there are only 
two days in the week 
reserved for the 
meditations on what 
we could have been
they keep us busy
so we forget   lingering 
on sundays 
slurries of hope swim through
our veins

Activated: On Divine-Thinking 
In A Satellite Body 

wednesday we orbit
not working with time
but at the same time

tash nikol is a Brooklyn-based editor, poet, and worker-owner of Grace Issues Press, whose work honors Black and Indigenous ancestral practices through experimental publishing that speculates and memorializes them as vital ancient technologies.