The Land Of Milk & Hunnies

Lilac & Rose

[ripemangos]

Family Photo

My father’s name is dead beat.

My rapist’s name is mother.

They were never photographed together but

Both pictures are the same

Crackly like static on a forgotten channel

The expressions,

Are different though

She has eyes like a shark about to feed

He has a mouth like a finish line out of reach

Do they know their child’s name 

Is Anguish?

The first time I saw their faces

Were in mugshots

[ripemangos]

Ablaze

The lines in your lips, to read them like palms

The perspiration on your skin, like new fruit fresh of dew

The hollow of your eyes, to know them like buried sins

All these things to awaken me

It is not the light that is needed,

But the fire.

[ripemangos]

“U can talk 2 God like anybody baby”

Where humidity creates thicker honey & thicker curls

Where scales walk among us

Where church is not only a place of worship,

but a parade of hats

Where culture comes to be reborn

Where you can go down the loudest street flooded in jazz

Or sit in the stillness of your closet

& hear the voice of God

[ripemangos]

“Are you ready?”

                                                                                                               “Jump!”

 Coarse yarn rope

whipping size for my ancestors

swish back and forth and back

blowing hot air sideways

to nuzzle my nose, I breathe.

 Sing song voices murmur over

worldly noises

cars, planes, jim crow

 The rope smacks the cement like a taunt

daring me to jump in its vortex

criss cross for my life

and spin

 Movements only the street could teach

knees bending at an angle

that gravity could barely support

defy all logic

and fly jump sing

 “Are you ready?”

                                                                                                               “Umph!”

[ripemangos]

Pickaninny

Blink

A small black child

twig legs scurry across the mud path

almost camouflage within dust’s shadow

Blurry

Blink

A grown black man

thick legs march across the mud path

almost camouflage within dust’s shadow

Fear tickles the throat

Tickle it back with

one dirt caked finger

left arm contorted to reach behind the waist

residue sprinkled lightly upon the trigger

Little Sally Walker

Sittin in a saucer

Ride Sally ride

Blink Blurry Blink

Parched tickled cough

a small black child camouflaged as a grown black man A grown black man camouflaged as a small black child

thick twig legs scurry scurry march across the mud path

Ride Sally ride

Wipe the tears from your eyes

Blinks won’t help the blur

when everything’s camouflaged

But when that pickaninny sings

hum along anyways

[ripemangos]

Self Care / Brown Girl Sunday

Stretch, spray, twist

Weave a pattern of coils in lemon midst

Massage a safe haven into the scalp

Make blossom a flower bed too thick to count

Covered with oil and honey and cream

Divine, sublime, a Black girl’s dream

Caress, embrace, relax

Seduce yourself in a silk wrap

Line a bubble bath with coconut milk

Slip in, breathe out

Have you ever seen a god in the flesh?

Have you ever seen brown skin drenched in oil?

[ripemangos]

Small breasts

He looked disappointed when I unfolded myself

layers and layers of anticipation for the worst 

As if I haven’t seen these eyes before. 

Then with a condescending smile of regret,

“wow, um. okay” 

Fuck you. 

[ripemangos]

Who taught me to feed the strays?

I think it has been in my bones for some time, to pet the creature who turns to bite.

I look at all the blood and think, ‘O, doesn’t he love me so?’

[ripemangos]

Have I ever been loved before?

Did I ever love someone who didn’t feel like a bruise?

Have I ever been cared for?

Was I ever a child?

[ripemangos]

Is that all there is for women like me?

For priestesses, witches, artists, harlots?

All we know is the flood or the fire.

[ripemangos]

God, why have I always convinced myself that love is a wound, or burn, or an ache?

[ripemangos]

I have passion

You chose pride

[ripemangos]

You see me as something like a weakness. You are a fool to not know that I am a champion.

[ripemangos]

The tears I cry are over the war women in my blood have fought to never be broken.

I do not know if they won.

[ripemangos]

You decided to kill this love, death by a million cuts.

[ripemangos]

so tired of being a woman

men make all the rules, get all the passes

what do we get

but to wear their shame & punishment

like a diamond ring?

[ripemangos]

Sekhmet The Goddess of War Our Lady of Slaughter

I never crawled

I skipped directly to walking

I clench a jaw like a fist

Because there was a time when I had no teeth

I was a scrapper as a child

There was a time when I could not fight back

I have been running from a claw I was always already underneath

There are things out there that crawl with knashing teeth

I decided before I knew I had decided

I had sharpened my teeth

Spat out the blood

Picked the skin out of them with the bones