True stories. Secret decoder ring -- Arrival day -- The first time [a re-telling] -- The device -- Artifacts -- Four boys on Ellis [a re-telling] -- Sestina with Matthew Henson's fur suit -- True stories about Koko Taylor -- From A Map Home -- Another time [a re-telling] -- Note from LeBron James to LeBron James -- Excerpts from an Interview with Metta World Peace, a.k.a. Ron Artest, a.k.a. the Panda's friend -- How I arrived -- Oil and water. Shea butter manifesto -- Appletree -- I thought it was a spider -- What I mean when I say I'm sharpening my oyster knife -- To Stacey, as you were -- Why you cannot touch my hair -- Ode to Luster's Pink Oil -- One thousand and one ways to touch your own face -- To the notebook kid -- Thursday morning, Newbury Street -- Letters from the flatlands. On Prince -- Origin story -- Sonnet -- Chicago is a chorus of barking dogs -- At the salon -- Montage in a car -- The discount megamall (in memoriam) -- I come from the fire city -- Hood run: a poem in five acts -- One good time for Marilyn Mosby -- Columbus Hospital -- Ekphrasis, parts II-V -- What I talk about when I talk about Black Jesus -- At work with my father -- Fullerton Avenue -- Tuesday -- Requiem for fifth period and the things that went on then -- Untitled anti-elegy -- Affirmation.