A Place

to put my poetry.

[theshapeofyou]

I hope my warm thoughts of you

travel through the wood, concrete

up into the air

and down Broadway

past the quiet buildings

we walked past

stopping where you made me laugh

to gather up the echoes

through tunnels where secrets thrive

then blooming, upward

to You

igniting your dreams

with butterflies

so you awaken feeling

Loved.

[theshapeofyou]

Joyous Turkey Month to us all

[kimreesesdaughter]

I used to think I was being too picky but fuck that. I deserve someone who wants to know about me. It may sound silly but I don’t wanna be out here fucking with people who never ask my favorite color or if I ate today. I deserve someone who wants to hear my dreams just as much as I want to hear theirs. I deserve the same energy and effort I release. Fuck that. 

[theshapeofyou]

The space where I sleep

Is a home

A restaurant

A quiet place to relax

A refuge

A box

A representation of my psyche

An artist retreat

That will never be clean;

I put away my laundry

Then immediately unfurl

Long cables

Move chairs

Set lights

I eat dinner on a film set

Do dishes in a recording studio

Masturbate in the editing room

(But not on Zoom, Jeffrey.)

...

Home hits a little different

these days.

[theshapeofyou]

black saint, sinner lady

oh.

it. Flows.

any which way

you blow

sendin

and rendin

and makin a

to-do

a cloth over fabric

a tune over sound-

push me, Mingus.

——

when sudden sounds

invade the day

and glory hides

a think Meanness-

pulsing undertow

and convincing grooves

ask:

when did you last

ever feel

so...

So.

[theshapeofyou]

🐇

[theshapeofyou]

Lend me solace

For the days gone by

The wicked winds

The shields of fate

Give me a patterned robe

Of all your failings

And a home of worries

To be its mate.

[theshapeofyou]

she accepted the press and sweaty mess of the crowded mass on the train and tried to remember when she was last hugged.

[theshapeofyou]

sweet helper!

brave friend

of domesticity:

thy chrome delights me

thy grates and dial

a sight to see!

who among us

can transform

the wheat of the fields

into hardened shields

of black,

or a calm amber affection

(as thou art more wont to do)?

oh, my soldier,

my alchemist of morning-

bestow upon me thine offering

so that I can catch the bus to work.

❤️🍞❤️

[theshapeofyou]

give it time and the world will love you a brief soft shimmering Love crackling in distant ecstasy it will love you through a relentless ink dotted with stars and a cold so deep you lose your breath.

[theshapeofyou]

lines. perspective. the quality of light. it all depends, she thinks- lost in a pensive pattern of her own designing. depends on you and me and everything that touches air shadow sun and heart. she looks at you with a pale wise wonder seeing your beauty for what it is noticing the shape of you and how your body dances with the earth. she remembers to remember your nose and the lines of your smile. and she celebrates with wry grin and kind visage the crackle in the atmosphere where You came to be.

[theshapeofyou]

the house of my dreams sits on north glenwood avenue between lush patches of families bruised knees, and french presses it sits, and stares and smiles in the dusk counting every ant that crawls in its garden i walked for an hour on scented streets until my heart held me there. and now i know where, in the autumn of my life, my easy chair will go.

[theshapeofyou]

I wanna hear Mingus chuckling over his bass as your tongue writes me a sonnet in between my thighs

[theshapeofyou]

One night I woke up to screams. Screams aren’t that unusual in New York- depending on the thickness of your windows, the streets can be in your bedroom. I wasn’t too concerned at first. But then, they didn’t stop. They kept happening, louder and more persistent. I stood on the blue nightstand in my little bedroom and I peered outside. I am lucky to live in a place surrounded by lush trees. I am lucky I got home early that night.

Through the leaves I could just make him out. Bare chested, hunched, pacing like an animal. He screamed again, then a loud metal clang, and I could see a lightpost shaking violently. Pace, pace, pace. Scream. Clang. I had never heard so much pain in a voice, so much rage. I didn’t know the human body could exude such force without ripping itself apart.

I thought about my body, one that usually felt so strong, and how small and weak it seemed when compared to such erratic, toxic power. I thought about the police. And the man’s dark skin. I thought about what chance this man had of surviving.

I had knocked over a bottle of fragrance as I climbed onto my nightstand. I went to clean it up, mostly just to do something, mostly just so I wasn’t just standing there anymore.

Flashing lights. Someone had called. My heart boomed in my throat. I closed my eyes.

“Please don’t shoot him. Please don’t shoot him.”

More screams. Loud commands. Loud commands. Loud commands. Screams. Silence.

….

No gunshots.

The fragrance dripped brown down my wall and clung to my hands. My fingers still smelled of it when I woke hours later.

[theshapeofyou]

what if we just hung out in a 7-11 until the fires come

we could listen to prince make a toast with paper cups and coffee

look into each other’s eyes over boxes of chocolate pie

until the cleansing rains come the all-consuming pain let’s have a communion of taquitos while the racist clerk watches

(to be fair he’s a little less racist now that the end is here.)

we’ll sit and wait for the mighty judgement while cooing over the newest flavor of Cliff Bar and find the star on a tootsie roll wrapper

and we’ll dance on the dirty tiles taking care to always avoid the murky mop water

and play with fly swatters like swords

oh come with me, come away to our local 7-11 hold my hand and watch the hot dogs cook the old men cry and the florescents’ silent boom-

until the final quiet comes.

[theshapeofyou]

Day 22: The Lynched ------ I've studied their faces Their eyes closed Or bulging, Necks bent Cracked Done. I think about the shoes they wear And when they put them on Wether they knew I look I've looked since I was a child Who cried herself to sleep at night Out of fear of being dragged away And never coming back I look I don't look away And neither should you.

[theshapeofyou]

Day 21: Mahalia Jackson ------- it's a voice that makes you go mmm as you close your eyes and remember early mornings rain or shine your mother sunday best steppin out the holy ghost and all that the smell of bibles wrinkled black hands raised up to god faith is in her voice and love mmm. remembering that old faith perfumed community side-eye central steppin out holy ghost and all that. was there faith in her voice when she sang at the funeral of MLK or was it just a mmm just a aah just a howl just a- .... laying hands brown-haired Jesus falling asleep in sunday school set it down shufflin out chicken and black eyed peas .... holy ghost and all that. holy ghost- and Mahalia.