The next poems, “a note on the phone app that tells me how far i am from other men’s mouths” and “& even the black guy’s profile reads sorry, no black guys,” jump ahead to a fully adult and twenty-first-century homosexuality, describing the difficulties and internalized injustices of dating for gay black men. In “last summer of innocence” and “a note on Vaseline,” Smith describes the first stirrings of childhood sexuality, when the speaker still feels protected by family and community. In “it won’t be a bullet,” the speaker gives thanks that a slow death of HIV/AIDS will at least be predictable and surrounded by family. The next poems shift to the complications of sexuality. In the second section, the first few poems explore the complications of race, first in a panegyric, “dear white america,” against promises of change that never materialize, and next with a proposal for a movie, “dinosaurs in the hood,” which will permit black people to dream and defend their own communities. The speaker of that poem, a victim of police violence, reflects on what it is like to have a second chance in a place without violence or fear, while also holding conversations from afar with the people he has left behind: his mother, his friend, his lover, and the police officer who killed him.

The first section of the collection consists of a single poem, “summer, somewhere,” in which the prayers of black people have created a heaven for young black men who die unjustly.

The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Smith, Danez.

Homie by Danez Smith