Where I Go: Afropalonia

Writer and Poet Rashaad Thomas Imagines ‘a Planet Only for Black People’

eath sits next to me, hip bones touching mine on a twin bed in the center of a revolving room in Arizona that’s progressively increasing in speed. Frequency numbers, lifeless Black bodies, and protest signs spread across the ceiling, mixing with red, white, and blue pills and two inches of 40-ounce malt liquor poured out on the floor for my dead homies.

White, black, brown, and red wires and transparent tubes stretch from the middle of my sternum to a heart monitor and oxygen tank implanted in my spine.

The walls’ eyes …