when I die bury me
at the root of other
green minded individuals.

ones who know that even
most things in technology
mimic the best parts

of nature. bury me with
grass that welcomes dandelions
and some weeds with petals

whom move like solar panels
needing to prove the sun exists.
bury me with proof of life.

don’t talk about the maggots.
let the worms make love
to themselves in peace.

don’t replace the butterflies
with the wasps’ nest. in fact
bury me with a bottle of raid.

I was a smoker anyway. and
still believed in the freedom
of one being allowed to pick

their own poison. I tell you
what, if you bury me near
a wood thrush, I’ll make
sure the other sharp blades
who bend with the wind
will remember their mothers’
voices too. if you let me, if
you bury me properly, I’ll
even sing myself.

Joshua Merchant (THEY/THEM/THEIRS) is a Black Queer native of East Oakland exploring what it means to be human as an intersectional being. A lot of what they’ve been exploring as of late has been in the realm of what it means to be a “Delectable Negro” in a world with an insatiable appetite for Blackness and the many ways we show up spiritually, mentally, and physically. They address the countless exaggerations of white fantasy as a means of humanizing the Black Queer experience through a lens only someone who grew up ashy and yet a teardrop slicker than the average lesson any Corner-Store-Prophet could provide. They’ve had the honor to witness their work being held and understood in literary journals such as 580Split, Roi Fianeant, Snow Flake Magazine, Corporeal, Anvil Tongue, Verum Literary Press, Ice Floe Press, Hotazel Review, MORIA and elsewhere. They have also received the 2023 San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award for poetry and was nominated for the 2023 Best of the Net Poetry Award by Spare Parts Lit. Their forthcoming chapbook is scheduled to be released in 2025-2026 by Game Over Books.