THIS: Match
By:
June 13, 2016
match
Malcolm X went to Mecca
and saw a brother, a sister with so many faces
he’d always spoken what he knew he was seeing
but only then did he have to be killed
A year we may live to remember
took down so many patron angels
of who you really are
like demolished divinities
in deserts with no end of dust
The earth, not the heavens, blazed forth
in purple light, amidst all colors
but not only princes die
That rainbow
rose in a deadened night
when half a hundred sacred lives
became first known to us
for how they died
The top scorer
with more bullets than we have tears,
or eyes
rang out,
to see how deeply, and how long
the rest of us still here can sleep
a.m. 6/12/2016
In addition to being a HiLobrow contributing editor and writer, Adam McGovern’s poems appear regularly on The Rumpus and at live salons and residencies in the New York City area.
MORE POSTS by ADAM McGOVERN: OFF-TOPIC (2019–2024 monthly) | textshow (2018 quarterly) | PANEL ZERO (comics-related Q&As, 2018 monthly) | THIS: (2016–2017 weekly) | PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HELL, a 5-part series about characters in McGovern’s and Paolo Leandri’s comic Nightworld | Two IDORU JONES comics by McGovern and Paolo Leandri | BOWIEOLOGY: Celebrating 50 years of Bowie | ODD ABSURDUM: How Felix invented the 21st century self | CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: C.L. Moore’s JIREL OF JOIRY stories | KERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Data 70 | HERC YOUR ENTHUSIASM: “Freedom” | KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Captain Camelot | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Full Fathom Five | A 5-part series on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World mythos | Reviews of Annie Nocenti’s comics Katana, Catwoman, Klarion, and Green Arrow | The curated series FANCHILD | To see all of Adam’s posts, including HiLo Hero items on Lilli Carré, Judy Garland, Wally Wood, and others: CLICK HERE