Tumble (Rachel Jackson-Lafayette, LA)

The swirling world so often throws

A twist in the path of the poet.

A trick to trick his feet in their progression.

A clump of roots rise up

And the artist grows entangled

He tumbles as a weed blown gently sideways.

He rolls, he tumbles slowly

As the grass accepts his body.

The blades running through his fingers.

Fibrous green beneath his nails.

The smell of virgin leaves

Wafts up through his nostrils.

Their chloroplasts dance gayly with the sunlight.

“O you funny blades,” he thinks

“You neither shave nor stab me."

You hold the ground in place with such persistince.

I'm sure your roots know intimately

The worms who live below.

Could you tell me all you've learned about their culture?”

He thinks of little tunnels wiggled in the earth,

Which the worms can sleep or talk or sing or think in.

Ponder to themselves

The purpose of their existence.

Develop myths that explain their brown surroundings.

Perhaps anguished or accepting of incurable doubts.

Yes the artist's fateful tumble

Becomes his very means

Of extracting art from the tricky earth below.

Comments

Come Hither (Annette Redmond Walters - Lafayette, LA)

I meant it not this way but the tears just flow and my makeup smearing all the more, leaving behind that familiar filthy residue. I may have begun to drive myself away, dragging you down as well. But it's done, I've flipped the switch and now it's dark once more. How painful is the music to my ears, I can't stand to be alone in it, yet here I am again. I pray you fly back and safely and warmly to me, though I fear I've dug the grave too deeply. As the dirt shifts within my soul, I choke on those loving words I'd meant for you. All the fragments of light I see becoming smaller and I wish to be near you in your embrace that might make me feel the warmth I'm missing. And in reality, I doubt I'd breathe another breath without you. So come hither and quickly soothe my dying heart, you are the only cure I know. I cry and cry again, come hither to heal and love me. Come hither and help me dry my tears.

Let That Fucker Burn (John Chenvert - Napoleonville, LA)

Let that fucker burn. Let the fire crackle like the whips once did— like bone meeting leather, like screams swallowed by the trees. Let the white columns crumble to ash. Not as tragedy— but as truth, unearthing itself from beneath generations of silence. Nottoway is not a mansion. It’s a mausoleum. A lie carved in stone to honor the hands that held the whip, not the backs that bore it. They called it the “White Castle.” A place of beauty. A place for weddings, for photo ops, for pretending that horror can be made elegant if the curtains match the guilt. But no paint can cover what happened there. Blood doesn’t wash out with white linens. And pain doesn’t forget just because you renamed it history. I’m not Black. And I won’t pretend to carry that weight. But I also won’t ignore it. My people—the Guanches—were taken too. Our language silenced. Our land stolen. Our names nearly erased. So yes, I know colonization. Yes, I know what it means to be disappeared. But I also know this— my skin ...

Dysfunctional (Taylor Coen - Lafayette, LA)

The flower sits before the tree, it is like an antagonist of nature. The rainbows fall against the clouds: colors burst into a buffet of light. Rain travels down into a puddle of water portraying the sight of an ugly ox. The strength is weak; it collapses to the ground, life flows out like a stream of consciousness. Back to the daisy and the overpowering oak, A lightning bolt strikes both. The war fades over, the mist evaporates, and sunshine gli mmers down upon a hidden valley.

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