Helium

by Rudy Francisco

Do you know the human body is approximately sixty percent water? When I walk into a room full of people, all I see is an ocean.

At this age, my body is a stranger that I keep meeting over and over again.

because every year, the past tense finds a larger house inside the neighborhood of my everyday vernacular.

I’ve been told that I give really bad hugs. People say it feels like I’m trying to escape. Sometimes it’s because I am.

Some days I forget that my skin is not a panic room.

I take my compliments the same way I take my coffee. I don’t drink coffee.

I swallowed my pride. It clawed its way out of my mouth.

He called me son and I thought to myself, that’s an interesting way of pronouncing “boy.”

Being black is one of the most extreme sports in America. We don’t need to invent new ways of risking our lives because the old ones have been working for decades.

I think about how this magic trick has become too familiar. Liberty just vanishing without any explanations.

You are still alive. So act like it.