captain, i will go anywhere
you want to go, look both
ways before crossing galaxy
strange world where i lack
the vernacular, you fluent.
rouse me from carbon sleep
with details of mission, coordinates
lurking danger. i will be your
Q, number one, whoever
i must to enlist in this evolving
speculative fiction, magical realism
beyond human reach but not far.
earthlings so non-essential, feign
supremacy. outer space not final.
Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of eight poetry books, three textbooks, three children’s books, editor of eight anthologies, and coauthor of a book of pedagogy. He is faculty of the Writing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent books include The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop and The Walmart Republic. Forthcoming titles include A Gift from Greensboro, The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience & Change Agent, and Revise the Psalm: Writing Inspired by the Work of Gwendolyn Brooks.
Amygdala 