I Was Fully Capable of Finding My Own Bicycle (Taylor McCleery Sloey, Lafayette, LA)

I wouldn't expect a birch that lives in eternal summer
to understand the feeling of
holding on to that last fall leaf before it drops
but darling, that's where you have me-

Reluctantly slip stumble falling
each time serendipity face first collides me
in front of your green eyes and messy hair
I plummet

Cuz a percussionist has me beat boxing sternum to throat
and halted breath is pulsing through me like
the yellow light that silhouetted your smile
in that fountain last summer
Bursting through my chest life fireworks
and
this wasn't a war I was prepared for
but I'm clawing against wooden paneling
not to let you catch on that
every time you kiss me I'm taken aback
back to the first time, I could breath, underwater.

And its killing me to hold this tongue
bite it til it bleeds
while the world around us
amplifies sonnets in the form of mocking birds
and perfect skylines
and clicking bicycles
and....
and I am never going to tell you any of this.

Darling-
You asked if I had plans for this poetry
I don't
See- an exposed heart corrodes quicker
and a sleeve was never a safe place to wear anything
just trust that there are words behind this kiss
and they WILL fall
as words inevitably do
but I wouldn't expect that be understood
by a summer birch like you.

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 ...

Lunatic (Lily Lechler - New Orleans, LA)

“Lunacy” comes from the moon, Who cycles through brilliance and darkness Bipolarity’s patterns are not so easily assumed Opposites not so well harnessed Who cycles through brilliance and darkness? The girl who sits in bed, wrestling with Opposites. Not so well harnessed As she thought, her brain gives reason the slip The girl who sits in bed, wrestling with Her body, depressed, her thoughts manic. As she thought, her brain gave reason the slip And gives the gift of life in a dreamlike panic. Her body depressed her thoughts. Manic Lunacy comes from the moon And gives the gift of life in a dreamlike panic Bipolarity’s patterns are not so easily assumed

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