will you criticize with me (Poem)

Hey y’all.

For Day 3 of National Poetry Writing Month, the prompt is to pick a shortish poem that you like, and rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as you can) with words that mean the opposite. Here’s my poem:

will you criticize with me

(An “opposite poem” to Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me”)

By Farah Lawal Harris, © 2023

will you criticize with me

what i have smashed into

a kind of death? i had plenty villains.

died in Zion

neither white nor male

what did i see to be except them?

i plagiarized

there on that chasm surrounding

pitchblack night and dust

my one foot releasing

my other foot; come criticize

with me that never

has something tried to resurrect me

and succeeded.