Justin Davis

Issue 49
Summer 2023

 Justin Davis

Notes on the Field

you murked a nigga with cornrows and he turned into corn rows / you spat up oil and swallowed coins / you wrote a treaty and then broke it / you spent the good will you never had / in the field / always hiring / in the field / where darkness made me qualified / where lack of capital made me qualified / where the sharp white moon made me terrified / in the field / you see everything or nothing / that nigga you murked lights a spliff made of methane / you write Exxon a check / the ozone dies / motherfucker / tell the hills to stop growing eyes / tell the sky to stop bleeding / beyond that there’s just the field / you know my mouth don’t spill power like that / it has power, but not like that like that / I’m not rich enough to eat through being eaten / I spit bars, theory, wishes / yeah / I wish a punch on every slick-mouthed Nazi / yeah / I hope you get laid out / in the field / I hope your back drinks the rainfall like the driveway drank up Medgar / my grandpa told me how his friend Edgar / got out the field / one day he dropped his plow and started walking to Memphis / his mule left alone / dumbfounded / I told that sonofabitch “woooah,” he said / grandpa asked him what happened to the mule / he said, that sonofabitch is still standing there, I guess