By Zoe May Everything I love,  someone loved before me.  The music I love, someone played for me. The food I love, someone fed me.  The books I love, someone read to me. The places I love, someone took me. The clothes I love, someone made for me.  The gifts I love, someone gave me.  The gardens I love, someone grew for me.  The movies I love, someone showed me.  The jewelry I love, someone crafted for me. The people I love, someone introduced me. Everything I love, someone loves with me. 

By Anonymous 1786 in Louisiana Were the Tignon* Laws They were used like a bandana To cover black women’s hair because Creole women were required to cover all their hair They used to experiment and adorn it They made the white men stare White women didn’t like it one bit It came off as competitive So they had to use Tignon To black women, who looked, was not relative But their creativity went above and beyond They began to adorn the fabric With feathers and jewels Rule makers though their change would be drastic But black women found a way around the rules They tried to police the appearance of…

By Anonymous  “This just in,” the news reports  “Renny Miles shot 25 times.”  While watching this, I want to abort  “Fifteen years ago, he was a man of many crimes.”  They display his mugshot when he was 16  I know him, our church deacon  Super kind man, lovable, never mean  He helped everywhere he could.  A true light beacon  Further reports indicate  He was out for an 8pm stroll  He just needed some air before he met his fate  From his mate this is what was told  The police felt he fit the description  He’s black, tall, fit  He posed no infliction  It always happens and the police will acquit …

By Brennon Land Not an Immigrant (2020) Stripped Of the land The language The memory of my people. Four hundred years of genocide And still my darkness survives. Though your words roll off my tongue Your clothes don’t fit my form. To you I am a ‘well-spoken. ‘Literate yet uncouth Unforgivably proud Irredeemably Savage. Love Offerings (2020) Late season sweet peas Plump and cold In a wooden bowl Smelling of green And frosty air Regret (2020) Regret is waiting For an opportunity That will never come Regret is a life That was never truly lived For no good reason Regret is the name Never called to your lover To stop…

By Brennon Land (2020) Roots stay shallow In earth poisoned By blood Mingled with the iron And the lead And the hate That put it there Roots stay shallow In earth salted By sweat and tears Savagely distilled From ‘savage’ bodies Stolen and displaced To lands stolen In the name of God The Civilized Whose mercy blesses Pilgrims Evangelists Intrepid Settlers Slaying old gods And their children alike Roots stay shallow In earth glutted On strange fruits Stolen and scorned By the same hands That left bruises Easily hidden Beneath dark skin So that eyes Blind to color See no injury And mouths that feed From broken flesh Teeth freshly…

By Shanice Lawton She dreams of you every night, Your smile still lights up her heart, She still speaks of you as if you will walk into the room, Your nephew is the spitting image of you he even has your humor, The picture that hangs in my office is my favorite one of you, When she smiles I see the tears she holds back, She tries to be strong but I know at night she still cries, Your birthday is in two weeks and every year she goes silent on that day, We tell her how much we love her every chance we get, You were worried she would…

By Raelene Active There was a time where I didn’t think about it I was a young tiny little thing Bright but stubborn to the core I never thought I would make some of the choices I have made No one in their right minds imagines they are going to become… An addict There I said it As if it were to come alive and become a living breathing heart beating thing Oh wait… I did that already I am that living breathing heart beating thing I like to think I am recovering Every second, minute, moment I stay away from it Is a turnaround from where I used to…

by Jamaille Austin I had a self-actualization precognition of prestigious amore in the dawn early morning light As I vehemently recollected egocentric cohesive without meditative intuitive contrite I reminisced introverted theoretical monologue referencing ethical wrongs or upright As I relinquished a ravishing sociological companion daunting temerarious strife I envisaged underneath pseudo arena electricity bulbs our gallant alliance transcending Triumphing above nefarious artesian obstacles blockading the corridors of unorthodox haymaker mending This southpaw fisticuff stance zealot conversed with the governing orchestrator of omnipotent assimilating As unfortuitive tragedies tarnished aspirations of idyll modern day folklore persevering I contemplated a savagery hierarchy tier of eloquent competitive brutality majestically ascending Aligning with mesmerizing nocturnal…

by Zoe May Today I fell a little in love. Today I looked someone in the eyes, we laughed and I felt myself fall in love. I watched someone make a foolish joke and I fell in love. I was having a hard day and someone hugged me tight and I fell in love. Someone waiting outside the door for you to come out, a silly face put on simply to make someone smile, it all made me fall just a little in love. I fall for the sky, I fall for the stars, for a toddler staring in awe at the world around them, I fall for it all.…

by Jamaille Austin Stove Top Marinade Barbeque and Kalbi Dishes Inspire Cerebrospinal Deluge Consciousness Canoes Sutbol Tenebrous Sulpher Ventricles and Molar Avenues