Our next live show in New Orleans is just around the corner! Join us for  Louisiana Words Live: Summer Vibes  on  Sunday, June 18th  at the  Allways Lounge & Cabaret @ 6:30pm . The show will feature Louisiana Words Allstar: Jorge Arturo and is hosted by J. Michael Norris with special guest, creator, Louis Toliver Jr. The show will also include Le Voir N. Lewis, Lily Lechler, Chase Miller, & Jacob Brouillette! If you are interested in reading at the show and you have submitted to Louisiana Words before, please contact us for a feature spot at  louisianawords@gmail.com . If you are new to Louisiana Words and would like to read at our next live show during our open mic, you may also contact us via-email to claim an open mic spot. We will also have ask for open mics at the beginning of the show. Spots will fill up quickly, so contact us as soon as possible.

   U nderstand this, unknown lover , read this letter with great care,  and be ready for the ultimate test of your life. Be brave, be bold, but be patient with me, lover,  I come with nothing but peace and not strife. I am bossy, prissy, and often brazen, always speaking on what’s on my mind.  I will dream big for the both of us, but keep us grounded together,  ensuring our life is well planned, not going in blind. Be brave, be bold, be ballsy, be direct, and don’t you dare tiptoe with me or be weak.  Be charismatic and innovative with my time and my love , a nd always with respect towards me, you will speak.    I  will  recite useless tidbits of information  to you every now and again , so be ready to get an earful  of trivia that will wrack your brain.  When my nerves get the best of  me, be my angel in disguise,  and be my therapist to keep me sane.  Be kind, be patient, and always protective, unknow...

“Don't you know how much I love you, Sam?"  As if. As if Love could be weighed on scales, like I weighed out the baggies I prayed would  Pay my rent,  Buy your–  Love? Love by the gram,  Behind the 8 ball, A key unlocks your heart,  To make you say To make you stay  Forever. We only lasted Til I was out of meth And what was left?  Broken glass. Burnt spoons.  Bruised veins. "Your heart isn't broken; Or if it is, it broke itself, Sam."  Loud whispers in the dark At noon, another sad  Nameless, anonymous room.  Didn't take 12 steps, You left. I wept. Hispanic housekeepers  Sought the American Dream,  They found me Sobbing on the floor.  Screaming and shaking and  Crying for more. More dope?  More you? I'm not sure. I'm not sure there's A difference  Anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The soft fall of fingertips on piano keys The squeal of piano bench as the musician shifts The sighs and breaths as sound rises and falls My favorite part of noise cancelling headphones Is hearing the human sounds beneath the melody

  My eyes look to the sun…   An ever piercing strike of her rays cut through the lens and touches my inner soul… So beautiful, so warm, so bright and all the while deadly…. if unbridled…. Time cannot take her away…. she only moves forward… Sand beneath my feet, air surrounding me, light on my face... I keep my eyes to the sun for her guidance gracious, silent, comforting, deadly… Turn away for a moment, it grabs me still … holding me in her arms and comforting my spirit I take her in through my pores I take her in through my thoughts I take her in through my lens I take her in through my breath She bewilders me She calls each rise and set as the hours and days move through She calls me Ever reaching… Everlasting… Ever more… She is the lady of light, and the lady of love…. She knows no boundaries and knows no fear The depths of her love are unending and supernova She walks with me and holds me in her arms… comforting my spirit She is et...

 

 

I know not what is happening… alone and confused— Hanging, dangling, dancing and playing the fool….. Did I dream this  cofusion or  am  I simply just used? Facing myself and figuring out who I am… I look back on the time but can not make a plan— b ackwards …..  f orwards ….. pulling… tugging…  reflections in light… b ackwards … . forwards….  p ulling… tugging…. Detections of blight….. b ackwards ….. forwards… ..  screaming  of no worth….. b ackwards ….  f orwards… ..  this   marionette reflects  rebirth…. I am the puppet … a lost   and lonely  muse… Take it , take it, take it take it, at the hands of abuse— I am a puppet …  permanently attached…  to strings  on the  stage…  Always  l ooking  out and back to my soul… forever  silent   and pondering  all the lost days … I’m  tired….  I’m  tired….  I’m  tired….. I’m  over this scene and this ...

                                                              What is this feeling? Blindsided like a surprise storm on a muggy night In the summery swampland of my hometown. The murky waters of my grief rising,  In the corners of my southern heart. I remember a time when love bloomed  Like camellias in the spring of my youth. Only for the petals to be blown away By the turbulent winds of a hurricane. Hoping maybe that the seeds of my joy can take root, And thrive in a new and foreign place.

 

He called me I was alone. He called me when I cried. He called me when I needed help. He called me when I lost a friend. He called me when a friend is all I could want. He called me when I wanted to fly. He called me when I dreamt. He called me when I was fired. He called me when I wanted to dance. He called me when I had been dumped. He called me when I listened to music. He called me when I wanted to see the waves. He called me when I didn't like the people I was with. He called me when I felt low. He called me when I couldn't be touched. He called me when my skin felt like fire. He called me when his skin felt like fire. He called me when he wanted to be touched. He called me when I told him no. He called me after I told him no. He called me and I couldn't exist anymore. He called me and I told him good-bye.

I  could spend hours, days, just perusing your face, clasped between my fingers asymmetry in small details, rough around the edges [sometimes] the way your smile lifts to your left captivates me those eyes hold such sadness and if I could gain the power to lift your burdens  I would bleed myself dry on the chance I could steal them away from you your hair falls into my eyes and my laugh lines light up when we match wits it feels like a dance, equal parts choreographed and freeform your sarcasm cuts through my armor with the force of a cutlass my walls have never fallen this easily with anyone but you I often feel like an empty shell, a husk of a person, someone who does not have much to offer in the way of interesting but when you look at me and smile, I forget about needing to feel interesting and instead I feel seen