In Defense of Villainy

In Defense of Villainy

In defense of becoming villainous,
The world never deserved our bare faces anyway.

In defense of being a villain,
I don’t know if Miles played with his back to the crowd,
Or if his defiance was more fable than record,
But I know I would have, & so I hope he did, too.

In defense of being a villain, I had to read Beowulf in the 8th grade
Before I learned Grendel’s side of the story in the 10th. 

In defense of being a villain, even on Fridays,
Red’s ass sped off bucketed in the comfort of a car &
A daddy who loved him enough at his big ol’ age to fight his nemeses,
While Debo pedaled away. Alone. On a bike he took like the world taught him
He is to take.

In defense not of curls, not of braids, but
Of steel wool: never forget that what comes off
The top of my head is regarded abrasive.

In defense of being a villain you are not the first Black villain, not
The first nigga the world looked upon and cried
“DOOM!” 
But you would certainly be the first who ended, 
And did actually bring about the end of doom with him. 

In defense of DOOM,
Of always capitalizing,
In defense of saying thank you
By going back and revisiting,
And re-mixing, remembering and
Re-membering, in defense of re-
Learning what it means to kill a hero,
To dress down a protagonist
And redistribute his armored wardrobe
Among the poor only for them
To trumpet for your hide at dusk—
If they even notice.

I think we could use more villains,
Because when doomsday arrives,
We won’t have use for heroes.

When doomsday comes,
Like it did today & yesterday & 
Last Wednesday &
The summers, every summer, more & more & more Black kids are swallowed whole in their metropolises &
The more summers still those young people wrap wrists in chickenwire and lanyard, and key their pink, naive fingers into fists & claw & scratch & survive a gash wide open &
Paint the city in the monster’s topaz blood & when they are through saving the townspeople,
The heroes first respond by marrying their Black into the simmering asphalt &
The heroes bind their wrists in harsher metals & haul them

Away & if you manage to stay long enough, you can spy the heroes quietly
Massaging bright blue droplets from curbs with plastic toothbrushes. 

Bleaching their city clean of any excess villainy.