Summary

Clint Smith’s poem “Queries of Unrest” opens the section of The Fire This Time titled “Reckoning.” Every stanza begins with the word “maybe.” In the first stanza, the speaker wonders where he came from and talks about his father, who had a gap in his teeth. The speaker speculates if he was supposed to see darkness every time his father smiled. In the next stanza, the speaker suggests that this darkness intensifies joy. The speaker wonders if he comes from where the sidewalk ends. The end of the sidewalk conjures another image of a white boy telling the speaker he is “marginalized” and all the speaker can think of is a sheet of paper (99).

Then, the speaker confesses that he is afraid of writing “another black poem” and making people roll their eyes at his poetry. He is afraid people...