Above:  Mama Nia drops knowledge how it should be dropped.

for gil
(an almost gigan created at the Poetry by the People Community Writing Intensive)

by: alexis pauline gumbs

we cannot write a eulogy for you
period becomes ellipsis

like battered prophecy in vein
tomorrow claws our collective back
money knocks teeth forward holes

soul on shiver
smack on cage
choke hold every stolen page

rage to proof that lines do make us bleed
and you were in our heartbeats all along

slice the forearm skin right off the news
we cannot write this eulogy for you

soul on shiver
smack on cage
you steal the present into final stage
we memorize your face a fading blue

and we would quit, breathe water, heal for you
but you remain to make us beg the task

be
last