Feb. 4, 2024
Audio
proem
By Leslie McIntosh
View full text below.
proem
By Leslie McIntosh
(first published in Southern Humanities Review)
Nowhere
is homeless
like parties.
Voices
escape,
movements
take shape
in windows,
light spills out,
finds night-filled
eyes.
Outside, the final
arrival—confused,
yet invited,
observer.
Suddenly interior,
an approachable
mess, forms
occupy
the structure.
Structure is to form
as urn—
ash.
First, nowhere,
now
here.
Music
is hot.
Everyone—
hot.
To ignore the flame
beneath the rug
simply
mute the guest.
I know of no sizable group of negroes in this country
who want to revise American institutions. They want
to be part of those institutions, for good or ill,
as they now exist. – Bayard Rustin
Leslie McIntosh
Leslie McIntosh (all pronouns respectfully used) is black, male presenting, male attracted, autistic, an older millennial, a poet, & a fictionist. Leslie has received support, in the form of residencies and fellowships, from Breadloaf, Callaloo, Millay Arts, The Watering Hole, Zoeglossia, and more. Leslie's work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, some of which include: A Gathering Together, Epiphany, Foglifter, Fourteen Hills, Tupelo Quarterly, Witness, and the anthology, In the Tempered Dark: Contemporary Poets Transcending Elegy. Leslie is a Chapbook Editor at Newfound and lives on the stolen land of the Munsee Lenape, currently known as Jersey City, NJ, USA.
Image description: Leslie is a late-30s male-presenting person wearing glasses with patterned frames. Leslie is wearing a black t-shirt and has overgrown high-top fade. Colored blonde.