“Ecology of Concrete”

after Jonathan Moody

Accumulated Cyclone Energy

spins on the turntable

as water rises on

equalizer bands like

heat on grillz.

Slabs swang in

the rain as turnt up

winds boom louder

than speakers when trunks

bump full of love while

elbows                                             of Houston hip-hop

lift the city.

Phillip Luke Sinitiere teaches history and literature at the College of Biblical Studies, a predominately African American school located in Houston’s Mahatma Gandhi District. A scholar of American religion and African American Studies, his most recent book is Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity (NYU Press, 2015). In 2017, his poem “The Day Nonviolence Hancuffed Bull Connor on TV” appeared in Beacon. From 1995-97, Sinitiere was a student-athlete on UH’s golf team; he later returned to UH where he completed a Ph.D. in history in 2009.