Enemies

By Dante Micheaux

(for Ishion Hutchinson)

The thing about entertaining them,
about keeping their company,
about fraternizing,
is you must remember
they are bloodless
and have many faces,
though it’s easy enough
to walk in sunlight,

where either you or they
become invisible,
never together seen;
easy to get in bed with them,
to bed them,
to be seduced by them -
listing in their own dominance.
Remember what makes one
human,
animal, is not the high road
but the baseness in the heart,
the knowledge that they could,
at any moment, betray you.