Beautiful In My Country

After Kevin Prufer’s In a Beautiful Country

One way to be beautiful in my country

is to stand on the halfcourt line in the pubescent

stink of a dodgeball game

Another way to be beautiful in my country

is to leave your house without using the bathroom

then go stand in line

The lines were drawn before the game was known

The foul lines and the hash lines forgotten

the waiting lines, the slaughter lines full

the lines that matter separating sides.

Chain

an unfed tiger behind you and only talk with tiger-owners

if you want to be beautiful in my country 

commiserate on how it’s hard to find affordable housing

outside of the zoo—

 the beasts of the fields are brought into the streets—

cut off your hands

and try to hold down a job at GM

you’ll be beautiful then—

yes, even my brethren—

They have put us to pain

and they profit from it

They have put them to pain

who cannot profit from it

We put ourselves to pain—

A good way to be black in my country

is to suckle your newborn on the black tit

of a beretta while overhead spins

a white horse a white diamond and a white Barbie. 

by: L. Raymond Andrews