If he hits the curve before you do, all is lost is all I remember when the coach yelled out to start, to kick it down the short straightaway

into the curve, the curve a devil’s handiwork, with Worsenski ahead of me, two hundred sixty pounds, one hundred pounds more than me,

and all I could see were the Converse soles of a boy I dusted in my dreams on the bus out here to make the track team, letters

for my sweater, girls going goo-goo over me, coaches from big-league schools with papers to say I was headed for glory, my unkempt

disappointment in me now sealed by winged feet beating me in the curve, Worsenski as big as the USS Enterprise sliding through Pacific

waters, parting the air in front of him that sucked back behind just to hold me in my grip of deep shame until I wished I were not there.

I wanted more than being human, a warrior of field and track would be bursting out now ripping open my chest with masculinity

to make Jesse Owens proud or jealous, or inspired or something other than me the pulling-up caboose slower than mud

running like an old man really walking, all the most valuable parts of me inside my brain in wishes, in dreams, in things

not yet born into the world, in calculations of beauty, in yearning for love, for the word of love, for some adoration from Wanda,

the most beautiful girl in the whole block, black like me and wondering just what life had to give those of us who can fly.

Poem: “Losing the 440-Yard Dash” by Afaa Michael Weaver from Prairie Schooner (Winter 2015)

Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 25, at 6:30 pm, Cynthia Cruz (Wunderkammer) will read with Afaa Michael Weaver and Jericho Brown at Cambridge Public Library in the Lecture Hall (449 Broadway) in Cambridge, MA.

Wunderkammer is available from Four Way Books. 

Also tomorrow, Wednesday, March 25, at 8 pm, Rigoberto González (Unpeopled Eden, winner of the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize) will read at American University (4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW) in Washington, DC.

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 4, at 11:15 am, Cynthia Cruz (Wunderkammer) will read with Afaa Michael Weaver for the Brattleboro Literary Festival in Latchis 4 (50 Main Street) in Brattleboro, VT.

This Saturday, October 4, at 11:15 am, Cynthia Cruz (Wunderkammer) will be reading with Afaa Michael Weaver for the Brattleboro Literary Festival. The reading will be in Latchis 4 (50 Main Street) in Brattleboro, VT.

Today, Friday, April 11, at 12 pm, Daniel Tobin (The Net) is reading with Afaa Michael Weaver and Christine Casson for the 14th Annual Boston National Poetry Month Festival at Boston Public Library (Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street) in the Commonwealth Salon Room in Boston, MA.

The Net is available from Four Way Books. 

Tomorrow, Friday, April 11, at 12 pm, Daniel Tobin (The Net) will be reading with Afaa Michael Weaver and Christine Casson for the 14th Annual Boston National Poetry Month Festival at Boston Public Library, Central Library in Copley Square (700 Boylston Street), in the Commonwealth Salon Room in Boston, MA. 

This Friday, April 11, at 12 pm, Daniel Tobin (The Net) will be reading with Afaa Michael Weaver and Christine Casson for the 14th Annual Boston National Poetry Month Festival at Boston Public Library in the Commonwealth Salon Room at the Central Library in Copley Square (700 Boylston Street) in Boston, MA.

The Net is available from Four Way Books.