are you sisters dancers, an innocent enough inquiry and had we the decency of dancers we may have left him his dignity in response indecency, however, is the occupation of poets so we in synchronized sonnet pounced dripping iambic pentameter across his abdomen like a procession of candle wax our minds weapons of mass destruction…
Tag: #blackgirlhealing
for my sistren, a poem
we were magnificence woman warriors armed with words piercing souls healing our own babes in tow men in awe imperfect with our flaws spewing necessary vulnerabilities a revolution in our bosom nectar sipping goddesses shat stereotypes spake stories over rip whiskey and dangling cigars sisters in arms poets, we are.
how poetry saved me from being just another ‘angry black woman’ or why i write
there was a time in my life when i was a hothead. and we’re talking the whole screaming profanities, fist drawn, feet shoulder distance apart, knees slightly bent, shoulders squared, ready to pounce and destroy rage filled angry. my primary trigger: someone i cared about was threatened or harmed. if you threatened to touch a…
grief, community organizing, and why a clean garage can literally save the day
the fourth of july weekend of 2016 sent me through a soul searching roller coaster ride. i was more 700 miles from my home, driving with my parents and young son after having spent a weekend with my aunts and cousins in hot springs, arkansas, when i learned that 2 men more than 1,000 miles…
on holding space for single mothers at the end of their rope
“ms. o, get your boy! cause i’m three minutes off his ass!” she came huffing and puffing into my office not because she had just walked up three flights of stairs but because she had just chased her 15 year old from out of the bathroom and into his classroom. “i’m gon kill him! i swear…
i can see the elephants from here
i love the circus. and when i say i love the circus i mean i love it! i love the clowns i love the acrobats. i love the tight rope walkers. i love Love LOVE the ringmaster. I LOVE THE CIRCUS! whenever the circus is in town i’d go. i’d get ‘not quite front row’…
a woman is a human, no matter her status or post or tweet or whatever
when you are born female you learn real early on that people are waaaaay too comfortable talking to you under your clothes. it starts with comments about how cute you are or how much they like your dress. but slowly the comments turn to weight and height and whether or not you’ve started your menses….
adhd and me: life with distractions
here’s the thing in my life i am consistently inconsistent. i will start a hobby and nearly half way through completion…i’ll just walk away. i’ll make a decision about going into another advance degree program. i’ll line up all the information. do thorough research on which program best fits what i need and then…i go…
on boxes, bad music, and the drive to be more
what if everything you’ve ever been taught about yourself were true? what if you really aren’t good enough? what if you really are too short? or too tall? or too skinny? or too loud? what if everything that has been told to you were the absolute undeniable irrefutable truth of who you are? who would…
His Mama Said, “You Don’t Have to Run. But You Do Have to Finish.”
Sprawled across a stranger’s lawn he yelled at me, “This was the worst idea you’ve ever had!” I would have slung him over my shoulders if my feet and back hadn’t been hurting and I didn’t have to go to the bathroom. There was also the fact that I pretty much agreed with everything he’d…
