The merlot on my tongue
won’t allow me to speak.
I stain my pillow with attached prayers of something
better
betwixt the Ghana of my mane.
Afraid,
I walk with a cane looped to my belt to beat a fall
design distance from cerebral lessons
fear wrestling.
I wear tight shoes to ensure carefully calculated steps
abandon spontaneity
and disavow chances and dances with love.
taken from the book:
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I.
After the fall storm
comes a rainbow and the smiles
stay / don’t hide from us
II.
Laugh at what they taught
hear my verbs and protect us
be father to all.
III.
Stop gambling your seeds
for a night to feel human
let divineness shine.
IV.
Open / not enter
love your womb and its’ future
don’t be forgotten.
V.
I preserve my world
in journals so my children
can eat without me.
nikki skies
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Allegiance.
like rusted barbwire
nothing gets past me
over me
Never Bow
nothing can get through to me
but your mixtures of smiles and advice
and now, that can only touch me through rain / Mama I miss you
my doubt outruns ruined panty hose
going back and forth like a father to work / a mother to prayer
Write a song for yourself
one that can march
when your walk is crooked
and your back is misguided
A song of allegiance
that can speak
when your twisted tongue is to capacity with
blues and sours and thorns
A song that pledges allegiance
to bodies that abandon couches and beds
but comfort the concrete slabs of
Oakland / Ferguson / Baltimore / New York
Blow the horn
Live to tell
moon face full of stars.
little woman / soft voice with cursive connotations.
serendipity back
and universe hugging
woman of literature.
my love for her is beyond words.
adoring / fond / attached like a new lover.
even though she is associated with the black arts movement, she is one of those artists who have walked through hip hop with us. her words have survived the linguistic flips and inspire/challenge writers today. she joined blues music with her poetic styles of tanka and haiku. she is the key of b sharp.
she is award winning and legendary and highly sought after for lecturing on women’s rights and literary topics.
I am writing this as if everyone knows where she was born and who she was married to and how many books she has, etc. if you don’t know… look her up and land in love with poetry and prose. over. and over. again.
sonia sanchez, one of the reasons I have realized/actualized I must write.
She say for her family
she do what she can
when in reality it be for her man
who wants another mother like her son
so she wipe both they asses / and then her tears cause it be from the same shit
too tired more / more tired than / her mother who
taught her how to stay
who lived and died the same way
the palm reader etched on her palm.
now that she know,
she can remain calm
when he comes to bed
smelling like fuck nut and dried saliva
he’ll say it’s all in her head
so she close her eyes and have nightmares
of forever being a fool.
from the poetry book, Pocket Honey Wind & Hips
available at
You are
the idea the African saw through the cracked wood of
the Henrietta Marie
You are
the seed of the new woman
the ecstasy in the fire
the gospel after poetry venues
praised on sidewalks and parking lots
you are now a prophet amongst preachers
burdened with the beauty of the entire rose
pick the thorns or keep them
just stay in tact / you came prickly and prissy
with a rampant river under your feet
your commitment will be constantly tested
through people using revolution to work our personal
problems
they’ll say you don’t fit the role / don’t look natural / ain’t ready to fight
you’re not committed to the destruction of the system
and they’re right
because you are a Creator / never forget that
You are a Creator
and you destroy the idea of death in order to live.
