Jeremy T. Karn

Jeremy T. Karn
writes from somewhere in Liberia. His work had appeared in 20.35: Contemporary African Poets Volume III anthology, The Whale Road, The Rising Phoenix, Kalahari Review, African Writers,  Praxis Online, Shallow Tales Review and elsewhere.
His chapbook  (Miryam Magdalit)  has been selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani  (The African Poetry Book Fund), in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2021 New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set.

 

Invocation

i know one day i will die, mark my words.

sometimes the wages of a depressed boy
is a little death that hides
                                itself in the depth of his body.

in 2016, when grief chased me out of my skin,
i said a prayer for myself,
                 crawled inside the sadness that cloaked me.

& that’s why sometimes the heart got too thin
to hold the desires to beat,
when my blood raged like it’s the red sea in my veins.

one day i will cut down these roots
in my body,
                            & sew my skins back
into the shirt i once wore, amen.