[unbiddentongue]

Beah Richards performing her poem A Black Woman Speaks in a PBS Special

[floraenchanted]

broken doll

:/

Rumour has let her go; her wires sputter

She’ll dial you up, the ring ephemeral

call it ignition, call it a blunder.

If you don’t mind a mouth made for kissing,

taste the chrome and crushed sugar,

half-coded, half-missing.

She won’t keep you on the run; her legs are broken things,

dragging ribbons through the dark

so languor, an afterimage.

Filament, filament: a lingering attachment

you should cut off,

threaded through the tongue,

the wound, the wire.

[floraenchanted]

restoration

october 10th | @nosebleedclub

how do you come out of love?

who starts it—

the men,

the mirror,

or memory?

break it apart.

he takes you

on the bathroom floor,

again and again,

until you see

jesus christ

in the reflection,

hugging a quarter of you

at five a.m.

ruin. here, honey —

slaughter him

softly.

the lion’s cage smells of lilacs,

a strange kind of healing

(if not holy).

let it be.

let it rot and bloom.

————

adapted from “brave” Ijeoma Umebinyuo and “little prayer” by Danez smith

[floraenchanted]

Occulent Earth

Why did you rob me of my right eye,

when you could’ve taken both and seen through two?

On God’s ocular earth, all that’s left now

is what I gave up for you

[floraenchanted]

Butterfly monarchy

flippant decisions,

fluttering counter-pieces,

wing parts scattered in light.

I can abide.

What is for me won’t fly,

won’t dart away —

man, just leave me and mine.

[floraenchanted]

a grudge will soon

falter, I don’t want to live

holding on because I am blind.

Suddenly my grip lets up just as

the other person has let go

And I’m unable to hold on again

I’m exhausted

I shouldn’t be alone

I shouldn’t leave me alone.

[reckoner-rm]

My childhood trauma didn't

make me stronger,

it made me believe that I

could only be loved by

fixing everything around me.

I learned to be

the quiet one,

the people pleaser,

hoping that if I was enough

for everyone else,

someone would finally see me.

But no matter how hard I tried,

I was never enough for myself.

I thought if I could just

give more,

if I could please enough people,

maybe I'd earn the love I

was starving for.

I've spent my whole life

thinking that my worth

was something I had to prove,

that love was something I had

to work for, even if it meant

losing myself along the way.

[themasterofalchemy-deactivated2]

Sister, friend, writer

I don't do much right But I was a good sister tonight And lord if if that is all I'm meant to do on this earth Then I did something right

I made my brother smile and he said, "I didn't think I'd be able to do that again" To capture that feeling in a bottle, shimmering joy of making a difference

I really don't do much right But I stand with friends in their frights And lord if that is all I'm meant to do on this earth Then I did something right

I held my friend's hand through tears and let her cry until she couldn't Held her and said no matter what happens I'll be with her through it

I... don't do much right But I feel like me when I write And lord if that is all I'm meant to do on this earth Then I did something right

In writing I can make space for myself and feel more light I can see the good—I can see I do some things right

[f-2-b]

Photographic memory

-p.m.

For my love

[themasterofalchemy-deactivated2]

“Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your entire life in the wrong room”

I walked through the wooden door and stumbled into a purple room

I was dressed head to toe in orange so I felt rather confused

It was a lovely room filled with purple things

But I was orange - in case you weren’t listening

I sat in the center

Hands in lap

Admiring the color

Feeling trapped

Beckoned to sit on a purple throne, I declined hastily

I’m orange to my bones, not a violet trophy

I want walls where I feel like me, is that so vain?

Where my color can bleed and will not stain

Not this purple room

Where I can’t see a drop of me

Where I am consumed

Until there is nothing left of me

I sat in the center, waiting to be told to leave

The purple inching closer surrounding me

Like an orange daybreak, it dawned on me

I can find a room where I’m free to be me

I stood up and the room vibrated with anger

Running to the wooden door the walls rattled

I stumbled back out feeling bewildered

I noticed I left one orange footprint in the purple

[floraenchanted]

October 17th

Gone

You’re last name engraved on street signs

your scent is in the clear

I think: How can the world

be much better off without you here?

You’ve chased fictions towards adulthood

through music made for my youthful ear

Just how do you think the world

Is much better off without you here?

The idea played you were so far

But our demons haunt within a sphere

The world is for sure,

But not better off without you here

I guess it’s time I accept your fate

As dive in to a pool of confused tears

I’ll be remembering your world

You’ll be much better off it that other place,

than here

[floraenchanted]

September 7th @nosebleedclub

Laboratory

Bundled in my laboratory

he sits tall

as I’ve shortened all the men

I let explore me

Besides his quirks I do implore he

knows there’s little room

for white arrogance

I gravitate towards

those experiments

I understand the men I choose

it’s second hand embarrassment

[floraenchanted]

Endless Weep

I am so fragile

to a specific infliction that

shard in your voice could

shatter me back into my natural

form of waves, outperforming

ripples that make the

ocean’s endless weep

So please

I’m on my knees

for you to lower

your tone

[floraenchanted]

Mind Hijacking

The dexterity

it takes to bypass my sway

is so primitive

The key meaning is

I would let you convince me

I had sh*t coming

[floraenchanted]

July 3rd Prompts @nosebleedclub

The Anti You

You are a carnivorous one

You.

I would rather be a herbivore doing

what it takes to keep myself humble.

But You’ve counted the ferocity

of my bared bones protruding to be

a manifestation of teeth.

bonafide

sharpened

for feasting.

You

Are a ravenous, relentless sight;

panting

at the reek of every opportunity

every risk.

You tear into the world famished for more

while Me

And my meek, vegetarian hands

tremble

as I Lick at the leaves,

afraid

any one of my teeth will extend well

into action. If I flesh out my desire

or sport too gummy a smile,

I am

petrified

of a bloodied spillage.

How it’d be You

And I

to gulp down the world

at every chance, every challenge.

But You

venture on to exist

while I

sit compliantly emaciated

wondering

what it feels like to be full.

[floraenchanted]

Don’t Look Up

Look up, there’s a rainbow

crowning the cloud, like a halo

(not at all.)

the cloud is shielding the pretty

the sky is unknown and plenty

up there could be a city, we could touch

immorally

But the clouds won’t let us peak

They will never let us finger

the beauty of what’s beyond our reach

Clouds please keep the beauty

protected

[floraenchanted]

July 21st Prompts @nosebleedclub

Soda

he came to me

in a dream of soda suds

I feel his grin, routinely flood

the grey matter. now I must

abide by his colour wheel

functions of night

my damned mind where

he is venerate

and I’m indebted to hospitality,

mares him host

that oneiric reality

the scape slurps up

all logic in strokes. and the hues

unfurl, what I’m left to choose:

to wander through bubbles,

seek dawn’s reprieve,

or fizz out the struggle.