poetry
autumn/winter 2018

The Freezer
by Nicholas Goodly
I am in a house/ with no electricity/ the meat thaws/
wings and breasts/ below my room/ turkey
necks and chitterlings/ undoing themselves/
writing words/ held up one by one/ to a candlelight/
black people’s hands/ on one hand/ held
inheritance/ a silver herringbone/ worn/ around
the wrists/ shackles/ there is ice cream/ in the ice box/
I do not open it/ to not spoil the bodies/ and limbs/ preserved
in there/ on the other hand/ is the invisible/ anger
stuck/ choiceless/ like light in a web/ there is nothing
I can do/ about the men in the freezer/ sweating up a storm/
to be named/ and smelling/ through the air
Nicholas Goodly is a Cave Canem Fellow, a recipient of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship and received an MFA from Columbia University.