I'm Sorry, Mom (John Chenvert - Napoleonville, LA)

I’m sorry, Mom, for the days I stay buried beneath my sheets, while sunlight begs at my window and your voice echoes down empty halls of memory. You gave me all the light you had left— but I was born with shadows in my bones.

I’m sorry the night light of your love no longer keeps the monsters at bay. They’ve learned my name, they sleep beside me, they wear my face when I look in the mirror.

You fought so hard to raise me in peace, to silence the screams you swallowed for years. But I inherited more than your eyes, more than your soft hands and fragile hopes— I carry your ghosts like heirlooms I never asked for but can’t let go.

I know you dreamed of more for me— a life where laughter comes easier than breathing through grief. But drinking the pain away only makes me thirsty for the last handful of dirt dropped on my casket. I sip sorrow from cracked glasses, searching for something that feels like escape but always tastes like drowning.

I’m sorry I couldn’t always be the son you believed you were building. Some nights, I try to climb out of this hurt just to sit beside you at the table and pretend I’m whole for a while. But the silence between us sometimes says more than I ever could.

Still, even in my darkest hour, I know you loved me through every storm, even the ones I made myself. And though I’m worn and wandering, I’m still your boy, trying to find my way back to the warmth you gave me before the cold took hold.

I’m sorry, Mom— but I’m still fighting. Maybe one day that will be enough.

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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