DARIUS SIMPSON

Irrefutable Proof I Know The
President Personally

POETRY: SECOND PLACE

all presidents are imperialists. most white people are presidents. all empires fall.

After Morgan Parker

donald was my partner for a presentation on the civil rights movement in 3rd grade // donald was my best friend until we reached middle school and then // donald was the quarterback casually tossin around the n word on the playground // donald was born in the hatchback of a red Ford pickup truck // donald was raised by both parents in the center of a cul de sac // donald shot a protestor in the face and got a promotion // donald shot a kid in the stomach and his coworkers didn’t blink // donald mowed down a woman with his car and his criminal record didn’t flinch // donald got all his best ideas from a middle school history book // donald’s best jokes about Black people are 300 years old // donald passed me on the sidewalk and clutched her purse like a football // donald walked into a booth and voted for himself 73 million times // donald voted for his opponent too // donald started a women’s movement for herself and still lost the election // donald is allergic to the words liberation and abolition // donald said if you don’t vote, you ain’t Black // donald built a wall around the word amerikkkan and started a war to guard its border // donald took a page from drone strike policy which studied oil-driven bloodshed // donald copied off of manufactured drug wars funded by jim crow nest eggs // donald said if he could, he would end the civil war without freeing the enslaved // donald was ousted in 2015 for wearing blackface while serving at her local NAACP // donald blends in like a mass shooter in bible study // donald blends in like a proud boy in congress // donald inherited clown shoes from his father // donald perfected circus paint in business school // donald wore a loose-fitted handmedown suit to his inauguration // donald was a car full of himself speeding past me on the sidewalk calling me outside my name // donald was a manager at a grocery store who called me a monkey // donald was a manager at Pizza Hut who asked me why Black boys loved their mothers so much // donald couldn’t answer when i asked why his grandparents were so good at killing mine // donald does not think jokes about his heritage are funny // donald laughs at the thought of not knowing where he comes from // donald brings no original ideas to this imperialist group project // donald might fail his mission if we stopped giving forgeries full-time jobs.

Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry belongs to and with the masses. He aims to inspire those chills that make you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of Africans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People. Free The Land. Free All Political Prisoners.