Category: Submissions

Red streaming down,
dark as rubies against the snow.

Born from a mistake, a cut,
falling from a height.

Gravity takes it, cradles it, caresses it,
then watches it spiral, spin, down down down.

It reaches the dark, black ground,
and crumples into a puddle.

Red ribbon,
dark as rubies.

 

Without you little friend,
I would be lost,
By all costs,
You hug me at night,
And without a fright,
I fall asleep shamelessly,
You have fame among my friends, I admire that,
little friend.
Now back to the bed,
Where I rest my head,
the monsters may be gone,
But that doesn’t stop both of us from fretting
about the bed bugs.

 

As smooth as silk
Juicy from inside
You my mango,
Are as bright
As the sun

Your beauty formed
When you were Happy
When you were Sad
you were
as stubborn as a Tooth
You my Mango,
You grew
Like a small Dew
And that’s how
You became you!

 

And they watched as he bled
Dripping into a big plaster bowl
They waited for signs of blackness
Thickness, Corruption, death in a living man
They knew it would drip from beneath his turban
And into his eyes

They knew the name of Allah would be carved deeply into him
The color of dead men
And they knew that when it had gone he would wake
A clean man

They discovered a man beneath a pool of blood
Bone and skin and lung like any other
A still man with blue lips and red blood
But not a drop of black within him

They looked in sadness at the slack face of this man
Allah’s hold had been too tight on this one
They knew this now
A shame he had died filled with the sticky darkness
Of a people capable of murder

Eyes clouded with answers
They still could not
See.

 

Tinted Blue

I press the pads of my fingers against the rough bricks

And a breeze kisses my cheeks

And lies against my lips

My eyes close I hadn’t worn these shoes in years

They were scuffed and the heels were worn down

From bouncing on the floor

I’d always been going somewhere then

My heels were always bouncing

There’s a yellow house below me

It has a tin roof and big windows

I wonder if they’ll see me

Through those big windows

I remember the day my mother got a call from school

I’d been gone And she hadn’t known

I wonder how many calls she’d get before

They stopped calling

Before she stopped listening

A place we live,
A place we relax,
A place we sleep,
A place we have fun,
A happy place,
A safe place,
A warm place,
Like a warm fire,
A building that says,
Come,
You belong here.

 

Nyc
I stroll through the streets of Nyc,
like walking down an aisle of a shopping store
admiring the old and new buildings,
like different colored cans on a shelf.

As I ride down the road,
looking on at the restless sky,
I wonder when this dream will end.
Until.
I realize.
I am already at home.
In bed.
Dreaming.

As I walked out on stage
I felt my body free from its cage.

The music surrounded me as I danced
And I knew this might be my only chance.

My toes pointed with every move
As I was determined to prove
That dance is a sport
Even though it’s not on a court.