Malcolm Tariq

The Body Politic

Say this isn’t the whole of it,
     this frail book and its sentence.
Somebody’s too-good and no-good
     grin. Somebody’s God-awful

and too-full mouth. Somebody’s
     tired. Somebody rattles
the cage another will die under.
    Somebody’s sickle and somebody’s

cell. Somebody be out his cotton-
     picking mind, somebody’s else
be all up in it. I mean the weight
     of a dime in my hand before

collection. I’m talking Sunday
     be somebody’s lifeline. Somebody’s prison,
whose body’s a pipeline?
     Teacher’s judgment against

my house collateral. I’m counting
     books and lives, putting money
on books and bailouts.
     Despite this black

president, I’m thinking slum
     lords and thug porn. Family
courting the law while yo mama
     so fat and somebody’s big

black _____. Three-fifths
     a body’s sum. Body’s worth
in inches. Who’s back a bridge?
     Whose broken daddy’s back

on crack? Somebody stepped
     on the beat. We dug it. A body
was bodied while politicking.
     Who done it? Somebody’s

well-meaning and good intentions.
     Somebody’s every day and everybody.
(You love somebody’s lost.)
     Nobody’s somebody you can’t give back—

somebody’s something paid for it.
     Somebody’s womb be somebody’s
gun. Somebody’s baby
     against bullet. The plot quickens.

Headstone-bodied bodies
     be bodying days. Centuries
bookend the dash. Our lives
     will fit within it. Our lives will

abandon the boundaries of the body,
     the way some bodies belong to
the state. I stay stating my name
     like it matters: I am and I am

  and I am—.

Originally published in Heed the Hollow (Graywolf Press, 2019)

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Malcolm Tariq is a poet, playwright, and social impact strategist from Savannah, Georgia. He is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf, 2019). He lives in Brooklyn, New York and serves as director of the Prison and Justice Writing Program at PEN America..