henry 7. reneau, jr.

henry 7. reneau, jr. writes words of conflagration to awaken the world ablaze, an inferno of free verse illuminated by his affinity for disobedience, like a discharged bullet that commits a felony every day, a spontaneous combustion that blazes from his heart, phoenix-fluxed red & gold, exploding through change is gonna come to implement the fire next time. He is the author of the poetry collection, freedomland blues (Transcendent Zero Press) and the e-chapbook, physiography of the fittest (Kind of a Hurricane Press), now available from their respective publishers. Additionally, he has self-published a chapbook entitled 13hirteen Levels of Resistance, and his collection, The Book Of Blue(s) : Tryin' To Make A Dollar Outta' Fifteen Cents, was a finalist for the 2018 Digging Press Chapbook Series. His work has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

whisper and smoke

after “The Urban Wild Coyote Project” by Mandy-Suzanne Wong

old man coyote   //   demigod/shape 

shifter   / 

dons missionary collar/   & snakeskin boots//   cocks 

his head/   a God engine of  

whisper & smoke/   incognito 

amongst the People of Hope/:   a politician's 

glint of huckster in his spiel   /the sound/bite filtered honey     

//   wild things are wild/   not a rib 

to be unequally yoked/   because the walls 

we build to contain them/    mean nothing to them   /& 

their Other-ness 

is the filth/   that makes them feel   // 

coyotes//   the symbolic chaos of disorder 

in white myths/   the indigenous 

colonizing their cities/:    mercilessly 

shot/   tortuously 

caught in traps/   their pups/gassed inside their dens   //

coyotes are entangled/   live under constant surveillance/  

in many Amerikkkan urban networks/   where 

the native tribes who venerated them 

were ousted or exterminated/   but

coyotes survived   (trickster/   creator/& taboo breaker)

/:   in Chicago/   radio-collared coyotes work 

as civil servants/hunting rodents in the city center   /but 

gunshot splayed if they overstep their place 

//   their refusal to lie down 

& die/   their adaptability/ 

tenacity & 

elusiveness/   their uncanny staying power 

even as white folks/came a-slaughtering   /& 

Progress swallowed up the land/   the guns & concrete &  

asphalt of Manifest Destiny/   in the name  

of 'sivilized   /:

a self-generating meta-

phor savages   /taking people from shithole countries   // 

we were told we no longer belonged/   kid-  

napped to tall ships   /Atlantic crossing 

into the Gloaming/   between bated breath & the silence   //   

now/   we root ourselves 

in tribal birthmarks/   & blooms of 

bruises of old blood/   remake ourselves 

from jaw bones/   gri-gri wishbones/   & upcountry ham-

bone Blue(s)   /like blood diamonds  

ground down   /to whispers on the color line   / 

the comet in us   /

fur-sleek over sinewy muscle/   

chanting Jubilee multi-colored/:   our endeavor to 

persevere   /marched on Ferguson       

exploded celestial neon with galaxies   /& pixilated kaleidoscope

to replicate ourselves   / seething to the surface iri-

descent in backwoods magic/   like schools of  minnow 

glimmering/:   the electrical 

ball lightning of fireflies flung down/   then phoenix up-

risen/   to roar again/   singing mighty protest songs   //   

Note: Philadelphia, Denver, Toronto, and the Gotham Coyote Project in New York City boast research organizations devoted to metropolitan coyotes. In Chicago, radio-collared coyotes work as civil servants, hunting rodents in the city center. In Tucson, biologists found that 50% of the city’s human residents enjoy seeing coyotes in their neighborhoods. Up to 85% believe coyotes pose no threat.