how we fight
i woke up with many
wings this morning, on this day
when without critique or blame
my father lifted my mother by her waist
and she smiled a forgotten tree
as they flew and rooted and my brother
and i witness this ceremony of accident
too early to leave the house but too
late to return to our other dreams
with less colors on this morning
when we knew more words than the
sum of our yesterdays, and the cupboards
a full and flowing and my father has many
hands that reach for us and we reach back
with our unblemished skin and desires for
cartoons and milk and a winged tree now,
my brother and mother and i arc towards
the place where sky animals dwell
and nothing is impossible
Aaron Samuels is the author of Yarmulkes & Fitted caps, released by Write Bloody Publishing. He is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Asylum Arts, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Samuels is a founding member of the Dark Noise Collective and ranked 3rd place at the Individual World Poetry Slam. He currently lives in Los Angeles where he serves as Co-Founder and COO of Blavity Inc.