TAKE CARE, TCB

for Aretha Franklin
by R/B Mertz

Where’s the good news? You heard what happened
Yesterday & the day before & the day before
between the radio saints

Making you look closer & closer
& realize you were blind. You’ve got to
Let somebody spit in your eyes

& stand on the other side of a line
& let somebody tear the beams out.
This summer was rough.

& the other seasons, too
Realizing what power covers
& for how long. Somebody said,
“white-washing”

& everybody understood
how many people’ll sing nonsense
& for how long & how loud

& How the body can do what you tell it
& not what it wants
& tell you You liked it

& how we have to keep asking for it,
Our whole lives, Working & Working, how she
Never got to stop asking for it.

R/B Mertz is nonbinary and here to recruit you. You can find more about her/them/dealer’s choice here: rbmertz.com.

City of Asylum believes that All Pittsburghers are Poets. With the Poem of the Week series, we seek to increase the readership and appreciation of poetry locally by publishing poems written by residents of Allegheny County of all ages and levels of experience. In partnership with the Poetry Editors at Sampsonia Way Magazine, City of Asylum advances our mission to defend, celebrate, and build on creative freedom of expression. This project received a RADical ImPAct Grant from the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD).