Yaz Lancaster

✨WINNER OF the 2021 Blongprize✨

Ratios

I can’t help but think South America is nine times bigger
than Greenland everytime I pull up a map where South
America is not nine times bigger than Greenland. I can’t
help but think it’s about time we un-cancel Sinéad O’Connor.
I also think we should stop doing things “for the economy.”
I feel guilty being sad over a business I like being on the verge
of shutting down when thousands of people died in order
to “open up.” I’m so glad Noname is back on Twitter. I can’t
help but think of that white man forging dentures from
the teeth of slaves. Of slaves & niggas kept spinning wood.
Kylie Jenner posted her bare white feet a day after Meg
was shot in hers. Nothing lives in my head “rent free”
because I am not a cop. Everytime we say “black bodies”
I am wondering whose. & what “media.” It’s about time
we give Lizzo a break. When “everything going on” is “over”
I hope it looks nothing like before. The fabling of “ICE.”
Fabling of “borders.” No new violence, every map drawn
to scale. & Lands cherished. & Blackness too. I love you
Oluwatoyin.

Put simply, it’s this way

after Natalie Diaz & Wendy Trevino

be lost on or upon, to
lose a dinner to
lose-all
lose a loss to
lose caste, hold, one’s
ground
heart
lose it to
lose one’s way to
lose one’s week to
lose out
lose patience, one’s
temper
breath, one’s legs, sleep
fast
lose sight of
lose-time

lost, time-lost:
once many years ago when
people still believed in [ ]
—​it was before I wanted [ ]
& they hadn’t bombed [ ]
to bits beyond recognition
for people who lived there​—
[ ] wasn’t dead yet & I
hadn’t walked in
on those young girls
crying in the bathroom
I hadn’t learned the history
of [ ]
I didn’t hate my [ ] & spend
years wishing I was [ ]
instead & before I [ ] every
solstice​–

I ate one perfect red cherry
the floor was carpet
I remember & I threw
it up quietly so for years
I said I was allergic
& never ate another