Uncle No one wants to go there. We have to tread light, write the perversion with metaphors, pen how flowers were crushed by boots. We have to whisper our travesties to therapists, guard the ears […]
Category: Poetry
Two Poems by Matthew E. Henry
an open letter to the white teacher who threw a Black boy out of her class for wearing too much lotion his skin was ashy. perhaps that’s a conceptyou’re unfamiliar with—like seasoned chickenand leaving vegetables […]
Seven Daughters
Josephina is born with the notched penny her mother swallowed as a childtucked in the folds of her chin. So beautiful, she charms the midwife and winksat her husband. Always the one to pick the […]
The Theory of Walls
after Dr. Joshua Bennet’s interview with The Poetry God 1.A physics student told him that we are“too big to be considered by a wall”(as an explanation to why we aren’t ableto walk through them if […]
Once, I Shot a Man Right Between the Eyes
Following orderson the battlefield,it was kill or be killedmy sergeant said,no different thanwhen he taught meto thrust and parrywith fixed bayonet.The young soldierwore thick glassesand looked a lot likeone of my classmates.Sergeant claimedGooks don’t belongto […]
Close to the Heart: Learning the Chinese Characters
怒: anger influxes when slavery eclipses the heart愁: worry thickens as autumn sits high on the heart闷: depression settles when the heart is shut behind a door忘: forgetting happens when there’s death on the heart忍: […]
Femicide
a Found Poem from BBC News on International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women They marched in Chile,red hands painted across their mouths.They covered their mouthswith purple hands in Argentina. They dressed in black […]
Rites of Passage
I. At sixteen,I keep my fingers crossedthe day I leave for school,first morning peehidden ina brown paper bag. In 1968 it takesa whole week for results,no simple wait to seeto see if a plastic stickchanges […]
Concertinaed
The barriers betweenAmerica and Mexicoare woundwith concertina wire. Who named thoselethal twistsfor music?for elegant bellowsthat welcome supplehands and breathesweet trills. ~ Troops in the trenchesof WWl were assignedto wiring parties ––to unsnarlbarbed wire stashesand stretchthe […]
Unintended Consequences of a Sexual Assault
I can no longer tolerate football. It’s like an allergy. I need to turn it off, leave the room immediately. This makes dating especially difficult in my stomping ground of New England #patsnation. Police stations […]
