Acknowledgments

Thank you to the editors who had faith in these poems and published them, sometimes in different versions, in the following journals:

Blackbird—“Prayer”

Callaloo—“Ignis Fatuus,” “Misericorde”

Columbia Poetry Review—“Witness (When Rashsawn Brazell went missing…)” as “Cocoon”

Connotation Press: An Online Artifact—“For Joy Be Righteous”

Crab Orchard Review—“Of Shadows and Mirrors”

Forklift, Ohio—“Often I am Permitted to Return to the City”

Indiana Review—“Inheritance: The Force of Aperture” as an excerpt from “American Aesthetic: An Exhibition,” “God as Failed Figuration,” and “A Survey of Masculinity” as “History of Masculinity”

The Kenyon Review–“Luminous, Whatever Honey”

Kenyon Review Online—“Birth of the Doppelgänger”

Kinfolks Quarterly—“Inheritance: Anthem” as “

The Lifted Brow–“Witness (I called his name but…)”, “Witness (Dear Ms. Brazell-Jones, In an interview…)”, “Witness (as though to repair…)”, and “Witness (Dear Ms. Brazell-Jones, I miss my brother…)”

Linebreak—“Greatly be Gentle”

Matter—“Witness (A friend tells me…)”

Nashville Review—“Black Witch Moth”

Obsidian–“Eleggua and Eshu Ain’t the Same”

Oxford American —“Of Contour, Of Cadence”

Poetry—“Do-rag,” “First Words” as “Speak,” “Of Darker Ceremonies,” “Vision in Which the Final Blackbird Disappears”

pluck!—“Inheritance: Spinning Noose Clears its Throat” as “Spinning Noose Clears its Throat”

The Paris-American—“Visitation”

The Rumpus—“Sonnet with a Cut Wrist and Flies”

Southern Indiana Review—“Selvage”

Toe Good–“Door to a War I Never Knew”

Tupelo Quarterly—“A Spray of Feathers, Black,” “Apotheosis,” “Epithalamium,” and “Then as Proof the Land”

“Do-rag” appears in the anthology Best New Poets 2014, selected by Dorianne Laux

“Prayer” appears in the anthology Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation, edited by Brett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick

“Black Witch Moth”, “Do-rag”, “Misericord”, and “Then as Proof the Land” appear in Poets on Growth, edited by Peter LaBerge and Talin Tahajian

For their encouragement, endless insight, and support during the creation of this book and its dozen drafts I thank: Catherine Barnett, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Remica Bingham, Jericho Brown, DéLana Dameron, Nicole Terez Dutton, Tarfia Faizullah, Aricka Foreman, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, James Allen Hall, Niki Herd, Richie Hofmann, Randall Horton, Ashaki Jackson, Monica Jimenez, Amanda Johnston, Bettina Judd, Corey Van Landingham, Rickey Laurentiis, Khadijah Queen, Treasure Shields Redmond, Justin Phillip Reed, Roger Reeves, Patricia Smith, KMA Sullivan, Marcus Wicker, Keith Wilson, and L. Lamar Wilson.

Thank you to Kathryn Davis, Kathleen Finneran, Cecily Stewart Hawksworth, and my peers at Washington University at St. Louis MFA for making my experience unforgettable.

Thanks for the generous gifts of time, financial support, and camaraderie to Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, and Alison Meyers at Cave Canem; Michael Collier and Jen Grotz at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference; Dr. Charles Henry Rowell at the Callaloo Conference; Ron Mitchell and Marcus Wicker at the New Harmony Writers Conference; Natasha Trethewey and Kevin Young at Emory University; Rafia Zafar and Amy Gassel for the Chancellor Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis; and Don Share and Christina Pugh for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from The Poetry Foundation.

Special thanks to Janice Harrington, Tyehimba Jess, and Laura Kortiz for starting it all.

To Mary Jo Bang and Carl Phillips, thank you for teaching me with kindness, patience, and faith.

Endless thanks to Carey Salerno, Alyssa Neptune, and the Alice James Books cooperative board for believing in this collection. I can’t imagine my first book being in better hands.

I finally want to thank my family for always encouraging me to do whatever I wanted to do in this one life I have. Thank you for allowing me to live in a way that brings me joy and hopefully makes you proud.

This book is dedicated to my father, Calvin Ford. R.I.P. I miss you.