Friday

I was
elected
evolved out of Irish Pubs
Concrete
and a flirty spirit

I sat at the corner
of barstool conversations
and art
nursing them
like craft beers

both conduit and messenger
a mediocre conjure
bubbled before our eyes
and sat in the center
of us 6

between laughter and connection
we built bridges
out of a lexicon
left the world
different

smolders of understanding
hidden in the rafters
and hugged us
like eternity was
holding our hands

Or at least
watching
from the top of the stairs
framed
smiling

Black women give birth to Art

Leniency looks like
she's ready to tie him up
rug burn ready
leaving nothing but desire
and fantasy
dripping

opaque silks
ambiguity
building trust
somewhere around 3 am
a mouth full of effervescence

a free and forbidden
Fuck
stanking syllables
grace
beyond mistakes

She is ravenous
gentle
He sucks her life
and inhales
her tears

Tropical Mic

He storms
festering quickly
zero to 100 in a blink
blank and brooding
seated

between what we used to be
and what we are
angry that he's only
enjoying the breezes
He has needs

His necessary
travels
rage through states
in screaming escapades
deceiving and destroying

everything he touches
grappling with his mistakes
like he dropped a mic
before the set ended
and he's standing embarrassed

looking for me
collateral damage
thrift store treasure
discarded comforts
the salvation in his army

That's when I touch him
stand in his disappointment
use my fingertip to write
a new direction
and point to his heart

cover my lips
watch him defuse
wait for him to melt
and catch his wax
 between my fingers

The corner of Zaire and Epiphany

I am sunken
almost swallowed by your embrace
and you laugh
as if my wholeness
can be consumed

used or kissed away
erased
crumbled, crayoned
a craving for
completion

but you compete with me
arm your ego
with self grandeur
to cast shadows
My shine isn't an option

Steel conducts heat
and it doesn't shield you from
who I am
no matter how skilled
a warrior you may be

I fight with stakes
tasty sharpness
driven through your heart
from under my breast
through your chest cavity

demolishing proximity
reducing intimacy
to the death
it really
is

Vampires in the Midst

Dawn makes us watch exhausted
from rain and reconciliation
we see each other
opaque and tacit
sharing spaces

The bed becomes a bath
a place to drown
drench
drain each other
of the secrets

that we lie within
deny
cringe at their burning light
seek shelter
in each other

gingerly grazing upon necks
tasting eternity
between our teeth
desperate for incisor bites
to deliver us

from ourselves
suckle on this life
the irony of our existence
until resurrection isn't a goal
or an icon

We are that which we become
timeless
suspended beyond death
not a duality
just doing

My Middle name Florence

Hurricanes and hurraches
are poor planning
We thought we'd prepared well
parked close enough
packed light

Winds don't whisper
they wail
whipping water from the sky
and thrashing it
sideways

We run
gathering wet memories
and laughter
up the corner
up the steps

and watch from the balcony
how pretty panic can be
when it's all shades of melanin
that vibrancy
running from the storm

"You can call me Flo"
I am fierce
dripping and sharp
I swell. I flood
and won't apologize

for the weights of my grandmother
her whole first name
separates what my mother saw in me
and my father's crest
I move with all 3

I understand balance
between the devil and the dance
I am the movement
the mourning
Miss me with anything less

I chose what I am called
Even Charisma listens
9 times outta ten
and smiles
in agreement

Mankind is an Oxymoron

We are parked
manicured green and curated just so
we don't hear the rumbling bones
beneath us
weep

exasperated with erasure
poured out in libations
our ancestors are the door
not the gatekeepers
or the opening ceremony

But my protest is swallowed
and spit out of six foot speakers
diluted like overpriced lemonade
that we have to drink
because water

is lead out of fountains
contaminated
through century old construction
never meant to water
these souls

these 2 sets of lips
gingerly declaring a kiss
in public
is the blackest thing
we can do

Gawdis here
with Black Charisma
we are all that
oxymoron and
mankind

Black Charisma

He saunders
strolls between rough and regal
seersuckered but not a sucker
unless his lips are
behind my ear

speaking something like conscious objection
and poetry
multisyllables of masculine magnitude
not married to the game
just thinking

about why marriage has merit
and why I melt
into his cadence
his misogynoir
his ironic

pursuits of politics and polygamy
having me hold his place
folded over my arm
fresh pressed
placid, and paid for

with a bite of sleeping beauty's apple
Blaming Eve, me
for GMO seed, systemic injustice
and front lining my body
for us

gathering in open spaces
parading past each other
like distant cousins
at the family reunion
and call it community

Other Side of the Moon

Galvanized and gathered
Parks become platforms
people and purpose converge
and color is no longer monolithic
it's who we are

in between the history and hustle
I didn't sit. I stood
signed ancestors names in chalk
unmistakeable mohawk
parlaying

proving my existence adjacent to
and contextually black
but I am hellish red
burnt umber
tasting tongues behind the bathroom

laughing up pineapple spit
we shared
before the storm decided
I was way too hot
to stay

and touch that earth
with little more than poetry
Nigerian remixes
and a hunger too great for black
dollars

Black August in a Park

Heat sits
legs spread wide open
inhaling what little cool comes in August
lawn chairs, old blankets, and hats
layered between the sun and this skin of mine.

Comfort is the context right now
close enough to earth to smell
far enough not to feel 
the assumptive is support somewhere
between gravity and a good time

Wrinkled light,
yellow layers kiss my thighs
fall between my breasts
dripping like the sweat
it absorbs

breathable
cotton 
dressing me 
beyond function
beyond construction

Buildings become shadows
casting memories and demanding my presence
in new places, old spaces
where I used to almost thrive
my foundations were here but I wasn't living.