Song by Lynne Thompson

Song

	I’ve learned to look forward 
	to the things I don’t know.
			
			Terrance Hayes
			“Everyday Mojo Letters to Yusef”

For such a smart girl, I’m not such a smart girl. I’ve 
gone everywhere but where shall I go to next? I’ve learned
languages and clouds and flags and the myriad ways to
cook a good duck l’orange, rice pilaf on the side because look,
we all try to game this treadmill, to find shortcuts forward
& past the planet we’ve fucked up, past all our venalities to
days we can ride a Murphy  chestnut in a meadow, look to the
seas and skies and wild lands as everyone’s bonus, to things
for which political brawls get low ratings, a place where I
respect your pronouns, you embrace my allusions and don’t
disparage the days I genuflect then sing, joyously: I don’t know

Note: Issac Burns Murphy (1861-1896), son of a slave, was a legendary African American jockey.

Lynne Thompson is Poet Laureate Emerita for the City of Los Angeles and received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. She’s the author of four collections of poetry, most recently, Blue on a Blue Palette (BOA Editions, 2024). Thompson is President of the Cave Canem Board of Directors and also sits on the Boards of the Poetry Foundation and Los Angeles Review of Books.

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