Embedded Files
After Frederick Joseph “A Black Man’s Smile”
I always show teeth,
less for you
and more for myself
because joy is a sin
in the church of Black boyhood
and I am a heathen who prays
to a genderless God and cries
in the arms of other Black men so that
the Black boys watching know how freeing
it is to feel and be felt,
there is no ocean that sheds a tear for
the drowning Black boy so we must
wave ourselves, we must be the calm
waters that say it's safe here, come in.
Cry Today
After C. S. Armstrong
cry today
cry today
cry a river
show grace
know love
find
love
cry today
cry,
cry today
cry a river
cry for worth
cry for need
cry for you're baby
cry
I was built to love
shuttering soft cheeks
Buried in backwater bluеs
When
your heart
be
Time-tinged tears
Lay down
Let
the tears stretch out
an ocean wide enough
t
o
wake God from sleep
Magic meadows
The folklore of
Slow steps
too winded to
angry speak
Grief
The safest place is in
me
knuckles
surrender
The hurt of healing
Love
Say cry
cry today
cry, cry
Enoch is a poet, manga writer for series Immortal Dark, and trauma-informed teaching artist living an anime lifestyle in Philadelphia. As a mental health advocate and human living with bipolar disorder and autism, Enoch’s work investigates the emotional and spiritual nuances of the Black human experience. His goal is to create literary art and curriculum for the younger him, works that foster visibility for the unseen parts of us and, in fostering that visibility, offer some form of salve for the wounds we are still nursing. Enoch is the 2017 Philadelphia Fuze Grand Slam Champion and the author of three poetry collections, The Guide to Drowning published in 2017, Burned at the Roots published in 2020 and I Was Close published in 2024.
Enoch operates as the Program Director for ArtWell, a multi-disciplinary arts programming non-profit geared towards using the arts as a medium to enhance students’ social-emotional toolkit, nurture their exploration of self, and strengthen their presence in community.
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