A 1000 and then 1

Teyana Taylor in “A Thousand and One” ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

A thousand dreams

A thousand hopes

A thousand cries

A thousand grinds

A thousand hustles

A thousand shuffles

A thousand swipes

A thousand steps

A thousand runnins’

I give of myself

fully to you

and you respond:

Moving

Running

Police

Frisks

Evictions

Lockups

lost places

lost spaces

I thrust myself into you

time and time again

you spit me out

They say that if I

do well within you

then tomorrow is set

And so I thrust

myself back into you

determinedly,

violently,

despite it all

If only for that possibility

that one hope,

one dream,

one laughter

One less frisking,

one less place lost

to the vagaries of your

changing form

Yes, if only for that one

And so I keep

thrusting myself back

time and time

and time again

into you

If only for that

possibility of a

thousand and one

Notes

• Inspired by the film, A Thousand and One, and the lost Parable trilogies from the Bible.
• Set against the backdrop of a changing city in the 1990s and early 20s, the movie tackles issues of race, incarceration, the foster care system, racial profiling, and gentrification. And it chronicles a mother’s fight to create a space that she and her son can call home.
• If you’ve watched the film (go see it if you haven’t), you will recognize this poem as an ode to the city of New York in the voice of Inez (played by Teyana Taylor), the main character in the film. Like Inez, I have a somewhat strange relationship with the city. I have always admired it (see this) from afar. but anytime I try to dance with it, we just don’t vibe. Like oil and water, we don’t mix. So, we keep going our separate ways. I guess you can call it “unrequited love”. So I keep admiring it from afar as I watch others dance with it. Anyway sha, look out for a future post exploring the role of cities in sensemaking.