But&nbsp;for a moment, to drive to the soul
food spot on Congress ave. where utensils,
large &amp; made for the hands of no one living among
us, hang on the walls &amp; where the woman behind

the counter yells out my order before my second
foot makes it in the door &amp; where her laugh is like
my sister&rsquo;s or where her laugh is like my mother&rsquo;s or
where her laugh is like my grandmother&rsquo;s or where her laugh

is like the laugh of a black woman who knows where the devil
is hiding &amp; knows how to shake him loose &amp; in the soul food
spot there are no devils but there is plenty sin &amp; where you look
at the sweet tea &amp; your dentist gets a chill from miles away &amp;

where, if the gossip is good enough, the smoke from the kitchen
puffs into black halos &amp; someone ain&rsquo;t getting the catfish they
ordered &amp; where all is forgiven &amp; where forgiveness is always
dressed in something fried or sweet &amp; where, around a circle

of spent plates, men with their full bellies &amp; thin gold chains slap
cards on a wooden table &amp; where those men ignore the yelling
&amp; the marching on the television &amp; where I imagine those men
have seen this movie before &amp; know its ending &amp; yet are still

here to watch it again &amp; where the plates rattle when one of the men shows
his hand &amp; says his partner ain&rsquo;t shit &amp; where I laugh because these men
could be my father &amp; around the right table, I am everyone&rsquo;s child &amp;
where the stereo is from the 90s &amp; so is everything that crawls out of it

&amp; where Lauryn sings how you gon&rsquo; win if you ain&rsquo;t right within &amp; I am
oh, I am right within for this small and shrinking moment. I am right
within for this newborn praise, because the rain stopped &amp; the clouds
gave way earlier &amp; yes, the darkness arrives sooner now &amp; yes,

the streets were still slick, but on this day, the children were in
them, dodging the streetlights on their small bikes &amp; the girls
leapt &amp; whipped their long ponytails through the open mouths
of two jump ropes &amp; this is the only country they know &amp; it is nothing

to get free when your only country is freedom &amp; so I say, then:
make a border around any place you are loved &amp; call it yours.
make a border around those who hold you up &amp; build what
you must to keep the devils out. I say, then: I know, I know

the burning cannot be unseen &amp; on this night I claimed a new
&amp; fleeting empire, governed by soul food &amp; loud black children &amp;
no one telling them to be quiet. governed by men who lose
card games. governed by men who know they ain&rsquo;t shit &amp; the women

who know it better but have loved them for too long to stop
now. oh country, my new and brief country. how I walk from you
full &amp; into the wreckage. how I wish you everywhere now.
how I try to taste you in the air instead of blood.

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

The Day After The Election I Did Not Go Outside

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

The Day After the Election I Did Not Go Outside

The Day After The Election I Did Not Go Outside