One innocent spring
your voice meant to me
less than tires turning
on a distant street.
Your name, perhaps spoken,

Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
The other, the end of a

We die,
Welcoming Bluebeards to our darke
Stranglers to our outstretched nec
Stranglers, who neither care nor
care to know that

My man is Black Golden Amber Cha
Warm mouths of Brandy Fine
Cautious sunlight on a patterned r
Coughing laughter, rocked on a whi
Graceful turns on woolen stilts S

They went home and told their wive
that never once in all their lives
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.
They said my house was licking cle

There is no warning rattle at the
nor heavy feet to stomp the foyer
Safe in the dark prison, I know t
light slides over
the fingered work of a toothless

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?

Funky blues
Keen toed shoes
High water pants
Saddy night dance
Red soda water

Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud

I’ve got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry