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Detrick Hughes

Author | Poet

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Vince Valiant
"If a character had the first initial in both names, I could at least remember one of the names"
-Stan Lee

...waited for him to transform
as if—he was a champion
a comic book hero
sprinting through frames
to vacant alleyways and myth

Each time Vince greeted me—smile
cloaked about his face
he offered the sharp end of blades—a hatchet once
a shiv multiple times
quietly latched to phalanges
and the truth of brutal hours

He was always prepared to split me
prior to finding us—friendlies
but tomorrow could write Yahoo lines

“U.S. Daily Beast
-Homeless man injures patron
at storage facility”

Still—his—was a face like mine
so it was easy
simply to steal Valiant’s words
and repeat them to others

“Peace brother” and “Bless you”
came jumbled in a mumbled mess

Before falling into our echo
I could glimpse his cape
and it was—always fellowship
Black White Photograph
Old-lace posed behind a cigarette
and pinched fingers,

turn. It was embers washed by a Kodak
flung at the night

with punch-drunk grins,
illustrated faces.

A thousands angry-eyed,
would—be heroes or whatcha-call-them

might bend knees
again to their God

while barn fires wait
for “black bodies swinging in the southern breeze.”[1]

I hate the “read”
of bones & flesh testing a lyncher’s rope,

but I’d rather not be
—erased.

[1]…excerpt from the song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holliday.
as if asking for a lie
watched her head turn     —counter—clockwise

breaking silence like air no longer resting
with soda caps twisted from old coke bottles

the ratchet motion of crimped tin freed
amber flakes spit to floor to join last words

she left them with used footsteps
    —i pretended
it was gold and one could pine
or pan memories
when needed     —she said she wanted truths

i assumed brushed with ‘wanna be’ like butter
to over-baked biscuits snatched from ovens
    —but
it was carefully crafted lies desired     —warmed

deception placed on paper doilies
with cut out french lace
    —pretended to sip from toy tea cups

forefinger and thumb pinched plastic handles
    —at her affair     —we held laughter hostage

just beneath our breath
Listening for a Cricket at the Edge of Night
I know the sound of serrated wings,
though I am not running to some distant end
while night touches the edge of things.

Today an old young man passes
in a boy's dilated pupil
falling between thick memories.

Yesterday, he summoned his son
before turning into a stranger
disappearing into those unfamiliar spaces

that remain familiar to the son
who stands quiet in dew-fresh grass
chasing the sound of crickets.
Six Feet
I deserted quarantine
for a moment

refusing to stand
with “at least six feet of distance”

by taking a cruel inch forward
and stealing half of it back

—my mask
clutching the smirk.
Contacts
Found Crow’s[1] number
in the corner of my phone
camouflaged next to another Hughes.

It had been quiet for months
collecting binary cobwebs.

                Carl Hughes 409

I never greeted him with father,
dad. But—wanted
to taste those syllables
when moments provided too much time.

Maybe a good son
renames the reference to “Dad”
and stores it in the cloud.

Wondered of his body
and the prosthetic leg
the VA added below the knee.
Did the undertaker rest it
in his dress blues?

Maybe it became an artifact
heaped on trash
or refurbished metal & foam.

But—did they make him whole,
and can I remove his number?

It begs my thumb
so I called my mother
just to hear the way she says

“Hello, Son”
and I visited Crow’s plot
and cried on the way home.

That year, I got a new phone.

 [1] Crow was my father’s nickname.
Untitled
bitter the tatse
are dreams broken
—sweet the pieces
reimagined

2025 Readings/Events

Houston Public Library for Cultural Connections: Black History Month, Houston, TX - Saturday, February 15, 2025 (11AM-1PM) at Johnson Neighborhood Library is located on 3517 Reed Road, Houston, TX, 77051

2024 Readings/Events

Book Release Celebration, Houston, TX - Saturday, Octber 12th 4:00 - 6:00 pm at the University of Houston, Alumni Center, 3204 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77004

Public Poetry Reading Series, This series is organized by Public Poetry and is presented in partnership with Houston Public Library. - Saturday, Octber 5th 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Reading/Performance, Beaumont, TX - Thursday, July 15th 6:00 pm at Beaumont Art League, 2675 Gulf St, Beaumont, TX 77703

Lyric & Verse (Reading & Slam), Lackawanna (Buffalo), NY - Saturday, April 20th

Celebrating Black History Month, BCFS Health and Human Services, 4346 NW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78229 - Wednesday, Feb 21st from 10 AM - 4 PM (Reading @Noon)

2023 Readings/Events

Uncloistered Poetry Live @ The Attic On Adams, 1701 Adams St, Toledo, OH 43604, Toledo, OH - Saturday, June 10th @ 4:00 PM ET

Lyric & Verse (Reading & Slam), Lackawanna (Buffalo), NY - Saturday, April 22nd

ThoughtCrime Live, Beaumont, TX - Friday, April 14th

2022 Readings/Events

Project Row Houses, Houston, TX - Nov 13th

Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, LA - October 6th

Deep Vellum Bookstore, Dallas, TX - August 4th

Theodore Johns Library, Beaumont, TX - May 27th

Gallery

ThoughtCrime Reading

Beaumont, TX - April 14, 2023

ThoughtCrime Reading

Beaumont, TX - April 14, 2023

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