1. Prison

2. A centuries-long mass movement of widespread, non-consensual gardening

3. Falling to your knees and begging the lord for home, not Heaven

4. Only receiving a response from your skin

5. Breaking the will so there will be no testament

6. Calling Massa the “General Manager” now

7. If only two-fifths of your body would fall off

8. You don’t know what “worth” is, but you could feel the scam creeping up your back

9. Preparation for purgatory, just in case

10. When you jump into the ocean and it tries to spit you back out

11. The capital before the -ism

12. The sun wishes it could beat something else, too, but it can’t control its whips of light

13. You unearth the earth and she apologizes to you

14. The compass you’ve braided into your scalp tugging on you as if it was trying to point to the sky

15. If God loves me, please make him stop

16. Jesus was never taught the language of your prayers

17. If Jesus was a black man, he was too busy chasing down white women to answer your prayers

18. Scars do not know what birthed them, but you do—they praise your pain

19. To believe the caged bird sings is to assume they didn’t tie its beak shut

20. The office is also a plantation