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boy maybe

poems

Part of Raised Voices

Author W. J. Lofton
Paperback
$17.00 US
| $23.00 CAN
Beacon Press
On sale Mar 25, 2025 | 88 Pages | 9780807017821
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51 achingly eloquent poems from a young Cave Canem fellow: W. J. Lofton's verses explore Black queer Southern identity, grief, love, and intimacy while enduring and witnessing unfreedom in America

W. J. Lofton writes vivid, accessible poems that channel the energy, urgency, ambitions, joys, and sorrows of a young Black queer artist. They are about love and flirtation, sweet tea and hot sauce, God and family, life and death, police brutality and extrajudicial killings. His verses honor some of the young lives extinguished by these killings—Breonna Taylor, Kendrick Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery. He also pays tribute to some of the towering figures of Black culture who have come before him—Richard Pryor, Assata Shakur. His style is endlessly propulsive, informed by some of the Harlem Renaissance greats—Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks—but also transforming that rich tradition for the present day.
“W. J. Lofton’s boy maybe is a museum of exactitudes, with lines so precise that you never forget them. One example is the enchanting and provocative opening, ‘there was a rock in his stiletto, / small as a tear across the heart.’ This book stuns and nurtures all at once . . . or as Lofton himself might say, ‘i am nobody’s dinner/unless i want to be.’ I look forward to whatever this poet will offer.”
—Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Tradition

“What to say? Sexy maybe? Daring maybe? Tender maybe? Brave maybe? Haunted maybe? Liberated maybe? All that. boy maybe touches my heart with its soft, honest lyrics and shakes me up with its brilliant singing. W. J. Lofton has written a lighthouse that will call many young queer folks to its shores. Here, in this poet’s shining language, is a country where we are possible. No maybe about it. This book is a warm, resounding YES!”
—Danez Smith, Lambda Award–winning author of [insert] Boy

“Here are poems that demand a reader, a listener willing to be completely vulnerable, tender, open . . . boy maybe refuses to compromise on the fullest, freest expressions of Black queer aliveness. I am so moved and emboldened by this work, these passions and inquiries.”
—Chen Chen, author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“I am constantly moved by Lofton’s beautiful, beautiful work. . . . Lofton stitches seamless and evocative images together creating lyrics for / of / from / the vulnerable / resilient body. This is a new illuminating call for liberation. I cannot speak highly enough of this voice.”
—Raymond Antrobus, Ted Hughes Award–winning author of The Perseverance

“I’m astonished at boy maybe. The people inhabiting Lofton’s poems reach for bodily connection, placing importance on tenderness with others and the self. The corporeal love of these voices is so insistent that accounts of harm must be reimagined, aliveness must be recovered. And it is: with touch, movement, surprising sounds, and sharp visuals. Read this breathing book and be reminded where God is.”
—K. Iver, author of Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco
W. J. Lofton, a Chicago-born poet and multimodal artist, is the author of A Garden for Black Boys Between the Stages of Soil and Stardust. His work explores the intersections of race, class, and gender while focusing on Black queer men’s attempts at intimacy and the tensions and wonders of boyhood. Lofton has received fellowships from Cave Canem and Emory University. A recipient of Ava DuVernay’s LEAP Grant, his work has appeared in TIME, wildness, Obsidian, and Scalawag. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he co-curates Rebellion: A Writing Salon.
W. J. Lofton View titles by W. J. Lofton
Preface

here today, gone today

after each death

dreamhouse

gravity reports:

we report:

Mama reports:

to know touch better

many things

property

for Cadarius, Keith & Miles

to keep the flies away

for Tae

using

dominium

pig

petting the dog

when your touch went
missing i remembered

first time we met

sweet

right hooks

language

half brutal

counting

dark

polka dots

fire eats

a mighty long time

double u, double d

for Kendrick

the flower will make its
debut when everyone is dying

would you kill God too?

boy falling

adjust your hips

ain’t dying

begging

fragile things

water we share

already flesh

the leash

between boys

that one uncle we all know

asking for miracles

baby’s breath

jellyfish eye

lady day visits glynn county

butcher shop

aint neva

as long as the dying
die without dignity

danger dodge

little brown bat

leaving kessler

& oceans

Acknowledgments
Notes

About

51 achingly eloquent poems from a young Cave Canem fellow: W. J. Lofton's verses explore Black queer Southern identity, grief, love, and intimacy while enduring and witnessing unfreedom in America

W. J. Lofton writes vivid, accessible poems that channel the energy, urgency, ambitions, joys, and sorrows of a young Black queer artist. They are about love and flirtation, sweet tea and hot sauce, God and family, life and death, police brutality and extrajudicial killings. His verses honor some of the young lives extinguished by these killings—Breonna Taylor, Kendrick Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery. He also pays tribute to some of the towering figures of Black culture who have come before him—Richard Pryor, Assata Shakur. His style is endlessly propulsive, informed by some of the Harlem Renaissance greats—Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks—but also transforming that rich tradition for the present day.

Reviews

“W. J. Lofton’s boy maybe is a museum of exactitudes, with lines so precise that you never forget them. One example is the enchanting and provocative opening, ‘there was a rock in his stiletto, / small as a tear across the heart.’ This book stuns and nurtures all at once . . . or as Lofton himself might say, ‘i am nobody’s dinner/unless i want to be.’ I look forward to whatever this poet will offer.”
—Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Tradition

“What to say? Sexy maybe? Daring maybe? Tender maybe? Brave maybe? Haunted maybe? Liberated maybe? All that. boy maybe touches my heart with its soft, honest lyrics and shakes me up with its brilliant singing. W. J. Lofton has written a lighthouse that will call many young queer folks to its shores. Here, in this poet’s shining language, is a country where we are possible. No maybe about it. This book is a warm, resounding YES!”
—Danez Smith, Lambda Award–winning author of [insert] Boy

“Here are poems that demand a reader, a listener willing to be completely vulnerable, tender, open . . . boy maybe refuses to compromise on the fullest, freest expressions of Black queer aliveness. I am so moved and emboldened by this work, these passions and inquiries.”
—Chen Chen, author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“I am constantly moved by Lofton’s beautiful, beautiful work. . . . Lofton stitches seamless and evocative images together creating lyrics for / of / from / the vulnerable / resilient body. This is a new illuminating call for liberation. I cannot speak highly enough of this voice.”
—Raymond Antrobus, Ted Hughes Award–winning author of The Perseverance

“I’m astonished at boy maybe. The people inhabiting Lofton’s poems reach for bodily connection, placing importance on tenderness with others and the self. The corporeal love of these voices is so insistent that accounts of harm must be reimagined, aliveness must be recovered. And it is: with touch, movement, surprising sounds, and sharp visuals. Read this breathing book and be reminded where God is.”
—K. Iver, author of Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco

Author

W. J. Lofton, a Chicago-born poet and multimodal artist, is the author of A Garden for Black Boys Between the Stages of Soil and Stardust. His work explores the intersections of race, class, and gender while focusing on Black queer men’s attempts at intimacy and the tensions and wonders of boyhood. Lofton has received fellowships from Cave Canem and Emory University. A recipient of Ava DuVernay’s LEAP Grant, his work has appeared in TIME, wildness, Obsidian, and Scalawag. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he co-curates Rebellion: A Writing Salon.
W. J. Lofton View titles by W. J. Lofton

Table of Contents

Preface

here today, gone today

after each death

dreamhouse

gravity reports:

we report:

Mama reports:

to know touch better

many things

property

for Cadarius, Keith & Miles

to keep the flies away

for Tae

using

dominium

pig

petting the dog

when your touch went
missing i remembered

first time we met

sweet

right hooks

language

half brutal

counting

dark

polka dots

fire eats

a mighty long time

double u, double d

for Kendrick

the flower will make its
debut when everyone is dying

would you kill God too?

boy falling

adjust your hips

ain’t dying

begging

fragile things

water we share

already flesh

the leash

between boys

that one uncle we all know

asking for miracles

baby’s breath

jellyfish eye

lady day visits glynn county

butcher shop

aint neva

as long as the dying
die without dignity

danger dodge

little brown bat

leaving kessler

& oceans

Acknowledgments
Notes

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