‘Poetry’ Archives
Water
By SHELIA BLAND There is something about the water that frightens me.Is this a before or after Katrina reaction?1600 dead.There’s just so much of it.Rivers, lakes, gulfs, streams,Ponds, bayous, lagoons, puddles, oceans,Just so much of it.1800 dead.Rain, storms.Typhoons, sweat, tears.Just so much of it.Blood streams, humidity everything that oozes,Water.I’m a little afraid of it.It sort of takes the solid out of solid.It permeates everything.Animates.Changes the certain into a soluble mush.A fog.Water.It’s everywhere.We drink it, eat it, breathe it. Sweat it,urinate it, defecate it.Inescapable.More present in our beings than flesh, sinew, bone.But is this a before or after Katrina thing?Houses exploded, crashed into each other. Floated like boats.High rises sit with vacant stares, like petrified tree stumps.Trauma rains down into a sea of nightmares.People hesitantly return to washed away spaces—locations that sheltered generations of relatives.Ancestral grounds.Ancestral [...]
Freedom of Expression
By DANETTE BILLUPS My freedom of expression is in my hair and I don’t care what other people thinkwhen I wear my afro, dreadlocks, twists and braidsor even if I chose to wear finger waves. I am free to be me. That is all I can be. If I wake up with a nappy headplease understand I just got out of bed. I can use the pressing comb on the stoveor curling iron, then don a bowto pretty myself all up for you,if that is what I wanted to do. But it’s not about you, it’s all about me.I am free to be me. That’s all I can be. If I don’t want to straighten my naps,I could just put on a baseball capor a winter hat if it is cold outside.The choice is mine and that’s no jive. Bobbie pins, barrettes and rubber bandsused to be at my commandwhen I was younger wearing ponytails and plaits.I was too young for wearing church hatson a Sunday morning or a Saturdaybut I could tie a ribbon any day. If I chose the chemical wayI could use a relaxer any dayor a jheri curl for [...]
Windows on the North Side
By SHELIA BLAND Cave livingWindows on the North SideDim lightDim vision.Errant sounds fromInvisible noise makers--Brick walls, other windowsBlock theseWindows on the North side.Perpetual twilight.The life-flowOutside these windowsPasses byLeaving the cave lifeInside this caveLike cave drawings –Perpetual,Yet, frozen in place. Shelia Bland lives in Midtown Phillips. She has been writing most of her life to help herself understand the experiences and people in her shared world.
