In Defense of Genius by kwabena foli
Winner of the 2018 Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, in the category of Poetry.
Final Judge: Douglas Manuel
after Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
The most quoted / Bible verse / told to you is / your gift will make room for you / no matter what
church you join / after attending bible study / for a few months / they say genius / and mean the
talented tenth / with a prophet’s tongue / they say genius and mean Jesus / & DuBois felt cool
leaving / the world / in your hands, plus you’ve read books / and read them still / you read them
more than how to cook / for yourself / no one is disappointed in a blk man who can’t eat /
everyone hates a dumbass NGH though / and they’re everywhere / like Family Dollar / i hear genius
and think / they mean something / ingrown, the boy sitting / in the library reading / The Adventures
of Encyclopedia Brown / and R.L. Stine’s Fear Street / while his homies fight for honor / on 125th &
Ada / being baptized in knuckle & bullet / which is once again / NGHs being dumb as usual / the
boy sits and reads / until the library closes / and does this once / a week / for so long the staff
waves at him / through the window before he / even walks in / he doesn’t even pay late fees / that’s
the fruit of not being / baptized like his homies / i say genius / and don’t mean smart / i say genius /
and mean the first day / boy walks into the library / or more so, ran / earlier that day, he punched /
a ViceLord / and split his lip in the middle / of class / i say genius and mean how / he carefully
watches the clock ‘til the last / second / of school to Usain Bolt himself home / i say genius and
mean how he escaped / the trap / set for him / in the alley / because there’s only so many routes /
one can take to the crib / the boy ends up running / into the library, hiding / between the mystery
and science section / in the far back / the boy’s / heart is an engine / and dares not to peek if he
was followed / i say genius and mean adapt / the boy reading / all the books around him / until his
mama got off work / to get him / the boys on 125th & Ada / getting used to being / reborn.
kwabena foli was born in Belgium but raised in the Southside of Chicago. Current and forthcoming publications include Mikrokosmos Journal, Meridian, Crab Orchard Review, Cream City Review, Salt Hill Journal and elsewhere. His work is also anthologized in Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks from Curbside Press. He’s a member of Nu-Being Collective and was a resident at Banff Centre of Arts, Poetry Center of Chicago, and Chicago Artist Coalition. He currently lives in Chicago.
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