after sasha debevec-mckenney

at the bar that time you called me over
just to say you love my people; us holy
runaways, us heroic northern
stars. we are not afraid, you said,
to make monuments to sacrifice,
to the miracle of self-rule. and you
love that. each of us a painter. no
divisions between men and souls.
our patriotism healthy — deep
as the potomac, sweet as wine.

you called me back to tell me
i am sweet as the potomac,
deep and blue as terror is.
you said: i know you are afraid.
i know. i know what you endure,
and you are far too great
for this. these limits. let me bleed
away the government of you,
curb the size and influence
of your devils. let my mouth,
my hand. let me take your lonely
dignity and taste it. i know you dream
of having meaning, so let me take
the small of you and make it
worthy. you speak so much of racial,
ethnic special interest groups
but darling, i can teach you
not to see divisions. not to be afraid
of what that means for our idealism,
our founding fathers. look away
from darkness — look at me.
my face. darling, love is touching
your neglected body. let me save
the bitter jungles of your heart.
you don’t need your courage
when you stand with me.
i could drink you, drink a nation
full of you, and still be on my feet.

Gustav Parker Hibbett (they/he) is a Black poet, essayist, and MFA dropout. Their first collection, High Jump as Icarus Story, was published in July 2024 with Banshee Press. They are an Obsidian Foundation Fellow and a 2024 Djanikian Scholars finalist. You can also find them on Twitter (@gustav_parker) and Instagram (@gustavparker).

Barnaby Furnas is a contemporary American painter known for his gestural paint handling and chaotic imagery. In his portrayals of violent battlefield scenes, the artist melds the formal virtuoso of historical painting techniques with emblems of American history, as seen in his Untitled (Antietam) II (2008). “Paintings don’t just show one minute happening. They can show an hour of things happening,” he has said. Born in Philadelphia, PA in 1973, he received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1995 and his MFA from Columbia University in 2000. Over the years that followed, the artist has been the subject of numerous exhibitions. His works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, among others.