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CREATIVE WRITING

As the Storms Overflow

Shriveled flower.

 

The rain makes our dry dirt deep brown again

and trees drip water on my umbrella

Water rushes down the stairs and hills

Fleeing into the ocean, the roots,

the full blooming flowers bear the weight

of the water and find relief from the drought

 

Wet dirt.

 

I wonder when the rain will stop

a gust of wind blows and I stumble

Water seeps into my boots, socks drenched

My umbrella strains under the wind

I tug at the door. I am powerless

The car door slams shut trapping me outside

I yank against the weight of the fierce wind.

It gives and the dry warmth envelopes me

The rain conceals any view of the world

droplets mix with the dirt on the windshield

Opaque splashes obscure my view.

 

Thunderous ring.

 

My phone roars. It all stops. I see her face

She looks so different now, so round and sad

So far away.

My third child, My baby.

I hear her voice

Alone. Helpless.

The desperation soaks as she croaks her

Her pain rings in my ears, she sings

A song of sadness

of hopelessness

A song of pieces being scattered by the wind  

The melancholy melody seizes my heart

 

Quiet words.

 

I want to pick her up and save her

From a nasty world, that doesn’t love her

Her heart is fractured pieces falling

Drop by drop

Picking up the pieces

watching them spill out of her hand.

she plummets

Water begins to seep into her lungs

She frantically searches for the surface

She cries out

Her pieces start dissolve

Treading water, she gathers herself

Pulling herself to shore

Broken pieces drip down her body

 

Piece by piece.

 

Rain falls and flowers bloom

She smiles picking off the petals

And placing them on her skin

 

Blossoming song.

 

The rain makes our dry dirt deep brown again

My daughter continues to sing her song

The soft pink petals on her skin cover  

the jagged edges of all the pieces

She opens her arms petals fall to the ground

she stares at the sky and dares it to rain

 

She roars.

Found Poem: Me and WEB du Boise

​

The freedman (woman) has not yet found freedom in his promised land

Emancipation was key 

The innate love of harmony and beauty

Makes it possible to be a negro and an American 

The innate love of harmony and beauty

Makes them ashamed of themselves 

 

Back in the days of bondage 

(Before) A vast veil, the Holocaust of war,

the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan 

(S)he thought and dreamed 

Emancipation was key 

Why not? 

Was anything possible? 

 

Black men started to vote themselves into the kingdom 

The revolution came 

Half free, weary, but still inspired 

A new vision began to replace the dream 

The longing to know 

 

The cold statistician wrote down the inches of progress

(The) changed child of emancipation

Felt his poverty 

The burden he bore upon his back 

The weight of his ignorance 

 

Decades, centuries shackled his hands and feet 

The red stain of bastardy 

Two centuries of systematic legal defilement 

Stamped upon his race 

The hereditary weight of a mass corruption 

Threatening almost obliteration 

The toiling, sweaty black (wo)man is darkened 

By the shadow of a vast despair

 

We the darker ones come not altogether empty-handed 

There is no true American music 

But the wild sweet melodies of the negro slave

The shadow of the mighty Negro

Flash here and there like falling stars

How does it feel to be a problem?

 

heartstrings 

torn out 

when his body 

crushed mine 

parasites grew 

in place of joy 

 

One stroke was all it took 

to send me reeling 

the ink has yet to dry 

on this chapter 

I desperately want to finish

and i’'m lying down

my body exposed 

the tears fall 

as an afterthought

I didn’t even hear my own sobs

until I choked 

and silence broke

everything in me depleted

 

I can’t smile anymore.

I can’t cry anymore.

I can’t sing anymore.

 

he lays beside me 

quietly watching 

his love morph into my nightmare

​

 

 

The Ships
 

I cannot stop thinking about the ships 
The ships that were filled with people and disease
Tied together like cattle 
We stood together 
Our vomit and excrement mixing together in the air
In the beginning, we cried
But then we were too thirsty to shed a tear
I wanted to jump
I had gotten so close to the edge
I could feel the ocean breeze 
The salty air on the tip of my tongue
I wanted to jump into the water away from these white men 
And their prying eyes
They looked at my breasts 
And fondle me as they forced me down below
There was nothing there
But darkness and heat
A persistent cough 
And the warm fever of the young boy,

Who can’t seem to eat anymore
Fear seeps into every breath we take 
And as we exhale we begin to let go of our freedom
Blood oozes down my back 
Old scars open up 
I can feel the infection growing inside of me 
Taking over me
I cannot stop thinking about the ships

 

 

 

SCREEN PLAYS

For screenplays please email me!

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