Black Women’s Acts of Resistance and Resilience to Trauma
Dineen skillfully dug her purple latex-swathed fingers into my bare left shoulder blade, and I yelped, “O-o-o-uch!” “Sor-ry!” Dineen cheerfully apologized. If I didn’t know better, I would think that she enjoyed torturing me. But this wasn’t that kind of relationship. Dineen is a petite, dark-haired, twenty-something Filipina physical therapist Read more
THE MOON WON’T BE DARED
The monster has a name The monster has a face Striding over the tender fields of my soul— You keep the monster in your heart You cannot set him free He runs your mind Holds your body in the mirror When is he you? When are you he? I don’t Read more
You are like these slippers
This is what my pa told me – You are like these slippers You are a guest You think this is your country But it is not your home You are just a guest Don’t commit a crime They might deport you Don’t make mistakes They might jail you But Read more
They Could Guillotine a Baby’s Hand: A Foster Mother’s Story
The narrow wooden bench creaks and bows every time someone sits next to me. It arcs so deeply when a heavy man sits in the very middle, two feet away from my tight clasp of the built-in armrest at the end, that I fear the old wooden fibers are spreading Read more
January 20th, 2014.
An unbroken blue-brown gaze brightening a dimly lit winter’s day— spellbound, perplexed, or simply intrigued— as caustic wit, Offset by caustic wit, joy-twisted still-frosted cheeks into Cabernet-toothed smiles where the paint-chipped Ceilings and Mezzanines agree. Shadow figures, braving sleet, paraded past our ice-glazed windows, ignored. Maneless faces shimmered Read more
Let Me Lie
Let me lie in my vomit Don’t wash my feathers with your tears They’re piercing me like blunt nails puncturing Jesus on the cross My wings hang heavy on the brink of my failures Their weight breaks my backbone Regrets taste like dust and mold in my mouth I’ve never Read more