i wrote a poem called “self-portrait as mango” that someone once started a very negative thread about. some of the comments were crude and sexual. most of them men, and brown

there were some women, too. it hurt my feelings but i thought it was interesting, too—what had i written that had gotten on this nerves so badly that he had to tweet about it?

literally there were thousands of likes on this post. some folks changed their twitter bios to “suck on a mango, bitch,” which is a line in the poem

and then i was kinda like...feelin myself even harder because of the hate? it surprised me that i felt great about so many people wishing me ill

i don’t have a point. i actually wrote to the tweeter and pointed out all the things i thought we had in common. he never replied and i didn’t write him for a response

i think about it sometimes, from a place of objective curiosity. and then yesterday the amazing @ZillianZi wrote me to say she had made graphic art based on that poem!

so, write your words. let em go. i rly want a pumpkin spice donut