Last Supper

imagine 13 niggas stuffed in a stuffy ass apartment.

it’s dinner, and it’s happening late, cause niggas.

the plates are laid out and now there’s a mouthwatering

silence while we wait for Auntie to sit. we lick our hunger

and spit jokes to stretch time to a tablecloth. “aye y’all

remember when?...” and of course we do. like this not

the story we tell every year of someone busting they ass

and a dish broke and Grandma said and we hopped

the fence but and the fish smelled so good that -then

-maybe if lil cuz from and i still don’t trust now look

now hold up! let me get a picture now boy you bout ashy as-

-no, no you telling it all wrong! you used to always make those damn

damn he still locked up sorry to that man damn nigga

just apologize turn a cheek or sum how many pictures

you boutta take? and i do miss Grandma. that one window

-the one facing the street that’s always open lays a bite

of breeze at our lips and i guess it is nice to ask if we

remember. how terrible it’d be for us to ever forget.

Kenny Carroll

Kenny Carroll is a writer from DC. He was the 2017 DC Youth Poet Laureate, and in 2019 received the Thomas Lux Scholarship from Sarah Lawrence. His work has been featured in Split This Rock’s The Quarry, The Hill Rag, and Beltway Quarterly, among others. He is a Watering Hole and Obsidian fellow, as well as a teacher for students of all ages. You can find him online @Kennyc113

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Luminosity