Wednesday, July 25, 2018

"All," A Poetry Post for Women

Untitled by Chelìn Sanjuan




















Sister,
you can't have 'em all.

You can't have
John's eyes and
Brian's thighs and
Alton's Saturday night
heaves and sighs and
Allen's father's and
family and nem money and
Lance's street charm
Frankensteined into your
one puzzle pieced
reality.

You can't have
Cameron's college background and
Mike's bulging arms and
Nathaniel's quick wit
mixed in with a bit of your
African man's cultural
rootedness.

You can't have
your cell phone
contacts
organized in order of importance
for
who wins
by degrees of
melanin.

You can't
mix and match
your
rolodex cards
according
to your moods.

You can't call
manufacturing a man
out of
used goods
you doing you.

You can't steal
some other woman's
married Oliver
to
spice up your
downtime.

You can't borrow
some woman's son
name Wookie
to make you feel
important.

You can't
run around town
picking up
bourbon-influenced
lawyer types and
businessmen to
collect your copy
of their Mastercards.

You can't
keep on
rocking that slit
up your thigh and
wearing your lacefront
wigs
like pimp hats
all over the universe,
leaving a comet tail of
broken and used goods
all over the place.

You can't keep on
using your
star shine to
snuff it out
on your whim
to darken
some unsuspecting man's
night
sky.

You can't keep
excusing your
"I am woman,
hear me roar"
whoredness
with
"Men do it.
So can I."

You can't do it,
because honey chile...

Honey chile...
listen...

No matter what.
You can't have 'em all.

You can only KEEP,
KEEP KEEP
one,
whatever his package.

You ain't no scientist and
this ain't no lab.

You can only keep one.

-T. D. O. Timothy

"Slips," A Poor Girl's Prayer

Untitled by Brett Ciacco




















Dear God,

When you
bless me,
please give me
more slips...

A half slip
for my
shorter
dresses that
I
don't have to
pin to my
tank top.

A full slip
so I
don't have to
wear a
tank
top and a
half slip
under my
longer dresses.

A
shaper slip
so I
don't have to
wear a
half shaper and a
tank top
and a
half slip
under my
fitted dresses.

And
some
more
dresses
that
fit.

That's it.

Thank You God.

In Jesus' Name.

Amen.

-T. D. O. Timothy

Thursday, July 19, 2018

"Some Rains," A Poetry Post














Some rains and
rain clouds
bring on
pictures of sadness,
deep dives into
depression and
depravity,
hard to resist
sit by the window
stare far away
bouts
of dark mourning.

Some rains
make
the world look
like it has
died,
been drowned
in a
never-ending
onslaught of
wind-whipped
downpour.

Some rains
make
violent war
with the world
around them,
lifting up buildings
off their foundations,
washing away
the harvest...
all of it,
whisking away the
young and foolish
into whirlpools and
torrential
chaos.

But some rains,
some rains
are like
waterfall showers,
set up for
each lone traveler,
waiting there
all along
for their
weary wanderer
to show up,
stand still and
get wet...
really wet...
this time.

To be clean,
to be fresh,
to be really renewed,
this time.

-T. D. James-Moss