Counting Descent by Clint Smith

I found this book because at work it was in a stack of books I needed to shelve. There was a quote on the cover by Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow) which caught my eye. I opened it to a random page and the poem was called Playground Elegy and it gutted me. I immediately bought the book. 

Today I was looking for something to read next but the new Pierce Brown book comes out tomorrow and I want to start it right away so I didn't want to start a long book, I work later 5-midnight and so I won't have much time to get a longer book done and didn't want to pause a read or wait on the Red Rising #5, Dark Age. It was the perfect day to get into this thin but POWERFUL volume. 

Page after page, poem after poem, Clint Smith packs an emotional punch into each line. Whether it is about his parents love (When Maze & Frankie Beverly Come on in My House), being passed by taxis (For the Taxi Cabs that Pass Me in Harvard Square), his freckles (Passed Down), or his home city of New Orleans (There is a Lake Here among others), this is an incredible read. 

Without a doubt race is the central theme of his work here, being a black man, and it is so powerful to read. Some that stood out to me where race 

No More Elegies Today

How to Make an Empty Cardboard Box Disappear in 10 Steps

what the fire hydrant said to the black boy

The above mentioned Playground Elegy

what the cicada said to the black boy....
I could go on but then I will be listing every entry so just read it and know you will be moved and if like me you are white you will be faced with your privilege and reminded of the need to make change, to be change...

(Finished July 29, 2019)