Nate Marshall is an award-winning writer, educator, and speaker from the South Side of Chicago. He is the author and editor of numerous works including Wild Hundreds, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and the audio drama Bruh Rabbit & The Fantastic Telling of Remington Ellis Esq. His next book, FINNA, is due out in 2020 from One World/Random House. He is an assistant professor of English at Colorado College. He has bars.

POETRY

“a poem for Justin" and Two Poems

By NATE MARSHALL

because you asked me your first word /
& i said i didn’t know /
& i could have told you a good lie /
& made that a small poem we share.