“Cutting” here plays on the trimming of lines, the trimming of meat and in turn the metaphorical “cutting” of the human body to make it more beautiful.

“Gristle” is a cartilage found in meats that is particularly hard to tear.

The crow not only uses tools but engages in tool construction.. The bird is a cipher for the poet.

refers to the same line as the epigraph from “Faded”

from “Faded”

Off duty police officer Robert Hoobler, in 1994, found the body of 12 year Dwayne Carter shot from an accidental, self-inflicted gun shot wound.

The off duty police officer who found Dwayne Carter, Jr bleeding out on the floor was told there were no ambulances available, so he drove the boy in the back of his police car to the hospital. His decision saved Lil Wayne’s life. The officer recalls: “how Wayne slipped in and out of consciousness as the officer "carried him like a baby” to a squad car."

This word works as a verb, adverb and adjective. It signals the end or close of the poem. It references the “close call” that Lil Wayne had as well as the image of the “closeness” between the beginning of his life (spitting out the bullet, metaphorically) and his later career (spitting lines, literally) as Lil Wayne. It signals that these events are held close to the body, shaping who we become.

Rappers spit lyrics and the body as well will reject a foreign body, such as a bullet.

This word links back to Duplessis' “drafts” poem, but also plays on the idea of children in urban cities with high crime rates being “drafted” into a life of violence.