Baseline

^{after “The First Time You Hold a Gun”}

My mother’s heartbeat
the first time I heard a baseline.
Her womb, the first room I danced in.
How did it go again?
Kick cloud-soft twirl
stretch
dark gulf
neon on my clay brain.
Kick . . . Then
the melody drops
& her vocals come in.

[VERSE 1]

There will be strife,
burnt days, a God
besides me
sex & crueler colours
than the abyss
but there will be this.

Copyright © 2023 by Caleb Femi. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 14, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“I wrote this poem at a house party.”
—Caleb Femi