Matthew E. Henry

she said it was due in a few hours. so I closed my laptop,
stopped grading, and did my colleague’s job. taught her
the classic definitions and offered some examples. but
she was too Black to watch SNL and too young to remember
In Living Color. so I re-opened my laptop and showed her
a Key & Peele sketch—how, in a post-apocalyptic suburb,
“some racist motherfucking zombies” slouch and skulk
away from an easy meal of dark meat. how their ragged,
outstretched arms recoil from terrified, then confused
Black bodies searching for safety once Kevin Sorbo
was consumed. brain-frenzied chads locking car doors
with broken windows. undead karens clutching drooling
daughters like purses from brains they fear are filled
with crack rock, fried chicken, and cop-killing gangsta rap
all because they’re “some racist motherfucking zombies.”

it clicked. she vigorously nodded then explained her drafted idea:
a orange-leaved tree running for president of Forestlandia
so he could clear the woods of the groves he despised.
it’s February of 2025: a little on the nose, but she understood
the assignment. still, I told her she wasn’t going far enough.
that to be truly satirical she needed something more. like
the fuckary of the trees voting against their own self-interest.
maybe offering more room for their saplings if lumber is sold
to the local mill, but somehow they never believe the hacksaw
will ever hew and fell them. I admit I got too excited crafting
possibilities. at rallies, trees chanting BURN AND CLEAR!
and CUT US DOWN! Spanish Oaks being used to build a wall
around Forestlandia, the Ebony for bonfires and crosses.

she gave me a sad look as she began to pack her things.
she thanked me for the help, patted me on the shoulder.

Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the author of six poetry collections, most recently said the Frog to the scorpion (Harbor Editions, 2024). He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal, the creative nonfiction editor at Porcupine Literary, and an associate editor at Rise Up Review. MEH’s publications include Barren Magazine, Anti-Heroin Chic, Had, Massachusetts Review, Mayday, Mom Egg Review, Ploughshares, Redivider, Stone Circle Review, Terrain, Whale Road Review, and The Worcester Review. MEH is a high school teacher who received his MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology, and a PhD in education. He writes about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground at MEHPoeting.com

This poem, misstra know-it-all, appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.