Book Review: Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

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“Don’t Call Us Dead” by Danez Smith is an exceptional and important poetry collection. I highly recommend it to everyone!

“Don’t Call Us Dead” is a lyrical account of what it’s like to be black and queer as well as HIV positive in a hostile America. Danez Smith shares his personal experiences as well as collective hope, grief, and trauma.

This collection of poems was hard-hitting. The way Danez Smith crafts their poems is like a dull ache that consistently takes place in your heart. by the end, you feel it. you feel it quite vividly. 

I don’t pretend to understand all of the allegories but I think I come close. 

“Don’t Call Us Dead” is simply a must-read. Danez Smith assiduously explains what it’s like to be black, gay, and HIV positive in modern-day America.

“Dear badge number.

What did I do wrong? be born? be black? meet you?” 

“i spent my life arguing how i mattered until it didn’t matter.” 

⭐⭐⭐⭐