So I said last year that this was the easiest five stars I could give due to the deep amounts of Identification and Understanding that arose from the text. What I didn't do was actually unpack my fuller thoughts. Now that we're in Another Moment of race consciousness, I decided to pick this book up a second time, something I don't normally do before a year has passed.

First up: you're curious about this book? Pick it up. This would be high on a list of "Books Non-Poets Should Pick Up" as the lyric form of poetry lends itself to enriching the subject and making it some of the most accessible entry into understanding how it is to black in modernity. Without needing to do textbook descriptions or etymological paragraphs on microaggressions, for example, it can just show you:

"...his dean is making him hire a person of colour when there are so many great writers out there"

and the mental burden of racism, of how it weighs on and manifests physically ...

"To live through the days sometimes you moan like deer. Sometimes you sigh. The world says stop that. Another sigh. Another stop that. Moaning elicits laughter, sighing upsets. Perhaps each sigh is drawn into existence to pull in, pull under, who knows; truth be told, you could no more control those sighs than that which brings the sighs about."

It explores the racism Serena Williams has faced, understanding her motivation, how we inherit racism inflicted, how it can all escape us, why it would. Anger feels legitimised, something I struggle expressing and feeling comfortable to.

It feels like catharsis. It feels like being seen.