Summer Rose (Alex Berrio-Lafayette, LA)

Praise to the very energy, whether from on high or churned by the hands of fate themselves, that brought the elements together for perfection. Compassion and tenderness resided betwixt mother's hands, the atmosphere filled with red fervor as the first stem engulfed herself into warm air. There she sat, as wind and word and trust were thrown into her fragility. There she stood, against mayhem with thorns and lust of life. She glows the brightest glow for me. She shines through to begin my perception of feeling, slowly leafing through my cascading cabinets to find fact. She is my adorned summer Rose. Explorers and cartographers of glorious knowledge would find it impossible to find a place with more love than my heart for my red summer rose. Let her be exalted forever blessed with beauty and bliss. Let my arms guard her from darkness and let my voice guide her heart. Let her beacon forever flood out hearts with joyous laughter. Let my summer rose wilt before me as we decay intertwined. Let the soft beauty seep into my sinful soul and cleanse it of the wretched. Let never her thorns intimidate you, for the groves are memorized. Hue, softness, brightness, kind words, lip of fantasy will never be forgot.

My summer rose will forever be.

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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