Trip to the Beach, a poem

by | Aug 7, 2023 | Poetry & Essays

The water goes loop-dee-loopby the sandy shore,knocks on our castleand protests it.We were a long time building,a long long time.But there goes baby sister— clueless,flipping in the...

Kitchen Noise, a poem

by | Aug 7, 2023 | Poetry & Essays

Daddy wanted steak for dinner.Momma wanted fish.And once they started arguingIt sounded quite like this: “I don’t want no fish, we’d faint in here,and fish stinks up the house.””Well ‘less you got money for rent and steak,Mr. Randall will put...

Fall exhales, a poem

by | Aug 7, 2023 | Poetry & Essays

like my big-armedgrandmother,seated in her chair,scanning all her children, remembering the days she kepttheir faces neat, their chicken fried,bandaging their cuts, and ushering them through the forever dark, attending ceremonies and graduations on findingIt’s a boy...

Recollections, a poem

by | Aug 7, 2023 | Poetry & Essays

We sit herethigh to thighin the lap ofthis impossibleBlack christmasmy mother and sister-mothers to my rightmy father five yearsflown somewherein a sanctuaryof souls We joke and laughabout him fondlinghis gray-less goateeloving on mirrorsbeing filled withjolly...

poem for a long lost friend, a poem

by | Aug 7, 2023 | Poetry & Essays

ms. emma’s mouth wrapped her face like a belt/ and stuck near her ear like an eye/because that’s what strokes do/they steal your face/ no pretty woman standing in the close aisles of the supermarket/no perfect fingers to fry the chicken once it’s home/the limp didn’t...