That One Time

Inspiration: Not sure, found this in my poetry book
Word/Phrase: One Time

I said I didn't care anymore
claimed that I was over it-
But I still become stilled,
by your presences
Shaken,
by your deliciously upsetting eyes
I still sometimes get tangled in the idea
of you holding me
in your arms
keeping me
with your eyes
like you did that one time...
you see my problem is,
I'm still stuck
on that one time.

Each day I Love

Inspiration: Thinking about the things I love.
Word: Love

I love how we all breed new facets of culture
I love moments
I love how language can create itself
I love God
I love how there is only one God
I love the many extensions
I love sweet babies
the one's who bring you flowers
I love the feeling of hot pavement-
pressed against my feet
I love sand between my toes
I love being footlose
and raw and bold
I love good taco meet
and a bubbly glass of wine
I love handbells
and wind-chimes
and soft tin roof water cries
I love the color of Jenni's hair-
in the summer time
I love apples-
the kind that type
I love my room to myself
at night
I love candles
and a rough summer rain
I love meatballs
and my brother's 'black folk' spaghetti
I love nice train rides
and the brown line
I love rooftops
and flat rocks
and stars
I love dreadlocks
and Cadillac Cars
I love man, men, and humanity
I especially love being womanly-
a woman
I love women, admire a good curve
I love people
and how we all swerve
I love music
a good 10 minute song
an acoustic guitar
I love a sexy rhyme
and a haunting rhythm
I love dirty dancing
and wiggling my bum
I love finding my breath-
at the end of a long song
I love breathing
and waiting to exhale
I love the way smoke looks-
in the sunlight
I love diggin' down into the earth
and taking in the moonlight
I love lovin' and I live to love
I love the feeling of my love
setting my soul free
I love that what I love
is an extension of me

Beauty Queen

Inspiration: Thinking about self-made celebrities.
Word/phrase: Beauty Queen

It'd be tragic if a beauty queen got HIV
(The others less worrisome)
HIV will undoubtedly kill her.

Would her followers bring her
flowers, roses, comments of love
Would they write on her wall
with pictures of red kisses-

Would they like her still
favor her still?

What if the beauty queen
was kissed with solemn red lips
turing her pretty butterscotch legs
black-

Dripping riled labors of lust
into the mouth of wanting patrons
would she still be the pretty
beauty queen...

or would her blackness turn her ugly
would her butterscotch become roily
a shot of overcast
dim, musty, and gray-

Would the beauty queen still wear her crown
or would her throne be brought down
by sour embraces of other dying arms-

Would her followers recast her
or band her with blocks

Would she no longer be lusted
Would her hair become brittle
her lashed burn off?
Would her eyes lose luster
and her lips become parched for polish-

Would she become- ordinary
or rather unacknowledged
Would she become present
but not seen
spoken of
but not heard?

It'd be tragic if a beauty queen
got HIV
the others are far less worrisome
HIV will undoubtedly kill her.

The Storm

Inspiration: A really beautiful Thunder storm
Word: Thunder

Thunder away my love song
Write to me a storm
Rain though layers of my brown
and create a music
a song of Nina
Let's bachata into the motherland
and shimmer like quick sand
Let's become beauty
lay in my worlds
Dazzle me with sunshine
Massage me with foreign oils
rub me down rapidly
Dance the ballet
Move to the greatest, freedom of rum
Let my insides come
Razzle my quick dance
Lust on pointed toes
Eroticize my everything
Linger
Allow yourself a stay
as my presence rocks you
Let my heart pound inside yours
down your inner drum
Let's wade in the water
create a ferocious wave
Watch my back ripple
down to the moonlight's shine
Let's hush on the current
and drop to the flow
Let's go beyond the trees
and become lightening
We'll be fire and ice
and you can slide down
the curves of my thighs
melt
all through me
Let's lubricate the earth
and create ourselves a bed
Pick for me a throne of flowers
tickle me with their innocence
hum through hurricanes
lose yourself in space
move me
with your lips
allow the solitude
to be our grace

Self

Inspiration: Late night realization 

Word:Self 

You have to get lost, to find yourself.

No Woman No Cry

Inspiration: My Favorite Bob Marley Song
Word: Cry *the words in italics are meant to be sung*

"No Woman No Cry"
Weeps
softly
tears
loud
shaking-saddened

I be sad now
real down now
My face aint so hot- right now

I be cryin'
engulfed by tears-
fillin' up the golf cost

Cryin',
I be, dyin' now
(feel like it)

Pain don't move softly
but slowly
tearin' me up,
I can't heal,
no more

"Here little darlin', don't shed no tears"
Shed, my blood shed
dull crimson red
I am (dead) now
head turned
eyes flicked
nullity etched deep down,
in my skin

I be,
hollerin' now
beggin' now

Won't you forgive
won't you-

Let me live,
please

I wanna breathe,
again
see,
again
him,
again
hurt joyfully,
again

"My fear is my only courage"
my fear is, my courage
so I guess I gotta push on through

Aint that what DuBois said
Aint that what, my Lord said

I suppose I outta be like them, then
and stop all this dyin'
and cryin'
and fussin and shit
and do what Ms. Oprah did-

Turn these crimson wounds
into my wisdom
and learn-
how to live with them

"Cus everything's gonna be alright, everything's gonna be alright"
Right?
Least' that's what a dear love of mine said to me,
said it would
all be             right
everything
(Which seems too hard to believe)

That's why I end up cryin'
and that's how I'm gone end up,
dyin'

Because I let my tears nurture the dead in me
I live regrettin' me
and I aint too proud to be
sometimes

Sometimes I wish I knew how to lie
or act real good
So I could live happy
and free

Be like that woman who don't know no cry
and learn to only surrender my life
to the beautiful things

Written April 13th and 14th

Brown, Green, and Yellow

Inspiration: Sitting in the grass
Word: Understand

There's peace in nature
a simplicity 
a stillness
vulnerability 

I rested my pride there
took off my head
and sat, mindfully
distanced myself from everything
closer still

I chilled
and watched,
prayed

Sometimes the bees fly
too close to my ear
and I tense and become afraid

But I let the idea wash from me
and appreciate the effortlessness
of my surroundings

no special lighting
or nicely paved pathways
just tall
untamed grass

brown, green, and yellow
hard, soft, and gentile

and small creeping insects
unapologetically exploring the visitors
of their home

I rest my pride there
humbled by the perfectness
balanced
and sweetly at peace
I understand,
that this is everything


Written April 9th-5:15pm