By Shane McCrae
We the thirst brother the
we water from the inside from the lips
From nowhere to the lips
We water inside brother we to say it water
from the inside
thirst and we / Can’t never have us like it’s
water got a color got a black
Brother we hungry water like
We was the first / Part of the Earth
It’s we don’t even know
How any we could satisfy our hunger what
Satisfy us because it ain’t / Was nothing here before us brother the
Thing meant to satisfy it come before
the hungry thing / So that the hungry thing will find it there
And known what it was for
Shane McCrae is the author ofMule (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), and two chapbooks, One Neither One (Octopus Books, 2009) and In Canaan (Rescue Press, 2010). His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Best American Poetry 2010, The American Poetry Review, Fence, jubilat, AGNI, and others. He lives in Iowa City.
