Unicorn Kidz Dance under the Moonlight, too

What is not soft here:
a boy spilling out with glitter and gun oil
moon child moves like his mother’s tides
a body that is all awkward and legs
we teach them to dance 
then tell them it’s not natural 
to move their hips
what an image to be both
a thug nigga  and a bitch nigga
what duality we shotgun into our stomach 
grief knotting at the end of the spine
thug niggas ain’t bitch niggas 
don’t  be so soft
the streets will scrape 
the cotton right out of you
they make a man out of anyone nowadays 
boys sparkling like his grandma’s gaudy
earrings
dead fish limp wrist boy 
dangling from the jaws of the block 
left mangled and shimmering 
in a rhinestone’s blood
What is not soft here:
that cannot also be pierced by fangs
we stare the beast in the mouth
and dare it not to bite
dance around his tongue 
and wait to be swallowed
my block will never love me back
not until I can produce a body made of less
glitter
So what is not soft here:
that is not also dead
there has to be a place 
for all us dead shining boys
i dream of a mother/not mine
contoured and glowing 
kissing each one of our
foreheads and saying:

Black boy it’s okay to dance
Black boy it’s okay to dance 
Black boy it’s okay to dance 
Dance black boy dance
They are no longer watching
It’s okay, move your hips like the tide crashing

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jason crawford (they/them) (@JasonBCrawford) is a black, nonbinary, bi-poly-queer writer born in Washington DC, raised in Lansing, MI. In addition to being published in online literary magazines such as High Shelf Press, Wellington Street Review, Poached Hare, The Amistad, Royal Rose, and Kissing Dynamite, they are the Chief Editor for The Knight’s Library. crawford has their Bachelors of Science in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University. Their debut chapbook collection, Summertime Fine, is due in 2020 through Variant Lit.