after Patricia Smith
By Ayokunle Falomo
Didn’t your teachers teach you
to ask good questions before
starting any venture at all?
What good is archaeology,
anyway? May I ask you
about poetry—yours, what good
is it? It’s been 10 years since you left
and I wonder: Do you miss
me still? Or even at all? Even then,
what right do you have to tell any-
one about my wrongs. About us: what right
do you have to say anything
at all? Can I ask you something
about guilt…? Do you have any
space left in your heart
for shame? Do you feel
shame, or guilt, for leaving me? Do you
even remember how to get to your father’s
house, eyes closed, without a map?
When will you stop asking for directions
to yourself? And have you learned anything
yet? What have you learned
about yourself, about me—are there things
you didn’t already know?
Can I ask what you’re willing to
teach me about myself? Can I ask what
you’re willing to do
for me? Is it too much to ask? Son,
how did it feel, when you found
out sharing my secrets with
strangers could get you a pat
on the back, an award, $250,
$500…? How much am I worth
to you, Ayokunle? Baddo, what price
would you put on
Decolonization?
If a pimp is a kind of god,
do you think yourself a god?
Are you willing to put your life
on the line for every single line
you’ve written about me?
Are you willing to die? For me?
And what exactly are you going to do
with all the bones you dig up? Son,
tell me, when will you come back home?
BIO:
AYOKUNLE FALOMO is Nigerian, American, and the author of Autobiomythography of (Alice James Books, 2024), AFRICANAMERICAN’T (FlowerSong Press, 2022—finalist for Texas Institute of Letters’ Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry), two self-published collections and African, American (New Delta Review, 2019; selected by Selah Saterstrom as the winner of New Delta Review’s 8th annual chapbook contest). A recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, MacDowell, and the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where he obtained his MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry, his work has been anthologized and widely published.