jul/aug 2020 in poetry

[latespring]

Part three of this. Who knows, maybe I'll even get this done before 2022.

By Inch-Meal a Disease by Nabila Lovelace
I could say that colonialism was a disease,
but that would suggest a cure.

Black Credit by Natasha Oladokun
You, Lord, as you have
with your other minor prophets,
have dragged—or is it called us

up the mountain, where in the thin air
there are those who got here
long before I ever dreamed of it,

still waiting on you
to finally cash this check.

sample collected from a superfund site by makalani bandele

Legacy by Rhonda M. Ward

ALL Y’ALL REALLY FROM ALABAMA by Ashley M. Jones

Menace to by Taylor Johnson

For my Brother(s) by Lauren K. Alleyne

Solitude by Irvin W. Underhill

When Puffy says, and we won’ t stop, 'cause we can’ t stop. by Rasheed Copeland
I’d love peace but the moon is pulling me by my water

I know this is no way to live but I was born here
a mobile of vultures orbiting above my crib

the noise you speak bragging
about the luxury of your stillness

reminds me that some children are told to pick flowers
while others are told to pick a tree switch

fleeing by Kara Jackson
everything i do comes down to the fact that i’ve been here before.
in some arrangement of my atoms i was allowed to be free
so don’t ask me when freedom is coming
when a certain eye of mine has seen it,
a cornea in a convoluted future recalls my freedom.

Selah by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Assume the Position by Jive Poetic

This Little Light of Mine Speaks by Crystal Valentine

a brief meditation on breath by Yesenia Montilla
i have diver’s lungs from holding my
breath for so long. i promise you
i am not trying to break a record
sometimes i just forget to
exhale.

Underground King by Derrick Harriell

sonnet for the long second act by Evie Shockley

My Mother, My Mother by Luther Hughes

The Plains of Peace by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks