(x)2
The first time
with those
molten syllables
at a skating rink
spun around me
I didn't know
but my body
Ugly
as two white boys
they curved
a little girl
felt
How
I told the teacher
But what about
with the red
in her ears?
you are branded
+ (y)2
I
red hot
as searing lassos
they
silking
what
was blackened
marked
taunted me
the loop of
crying
my selves
did I know
and she
the little girl
hot g sounds
You never forget
with iron
= r2
was called a nigger
g sounds,
around my neck
like white spiders
a carousel of hate.
the word meant
wrong with heat.
a radius of shameful skin
on roller skates,
my circumference. I was
in the center of a circle—
begin to double.
I was different?
put them in timeout.
rolling away, struck
ringing fire songs
the first time
seared raw, permanent.