Special Featurerbdgervanna stephens, poetry, special feature

Gervanna Stephens: The White Man Tells Me to Forget Skin Color

Special Featurerbdgervanna stephens, poetry, special feature
Gervanna Stephens: The White Man Tells Me to Forget Skin Color

In the Beginning

To be black in this climate
is brilliant honesty
a refusal of Hail Mary’s
flag skinned high
and proud of this tar and charcoal and milk sweetened coffee
all of these and still true
power of the ancestors
beaming from crooked smiles
electrifying the vibranium in our blood
to create from darkness the light,
to shape heaven in its midst and
breathe original into man.

 

The White Man Tells Me to Forget Skin Color

He tells me that my skin is pretty,
like a caramel covered dipped gift and I know he means black
because he cannot say the word. I know he means high colored; mixed.
As if to say I am a white-washed version of my ancestral line.
As if to say I am not black.
As if to say his interest because of my “pretty black” makes me
more valid, more good, better.
As if to say I am different, like my great-great-great-great-great-grand somebody never
had to succumb to whiteness once upon a time.
As if to say I can pass as not who I am. As if to say the richness that flows in my veins
is not soil and sweat and revolt.
As if to say I should be ashamed. As if to say that this skin isn’t
patriarchy beyond flag and country.
As if to say this is reason to love me. He tells me, as if to say I am stupid.
He tells me, as if to say mansplaining hasn’t lashed the black woman enough.
As if to say I don’t already love myself.

Gervanna Stephens is a Jamaican poet and proud Slytherin with congenital amputation living in Canada. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The /tƐmz/, Rhythm & Bones, Bone & Ink, Rose Quartz, Okay Donkey, 8 poems, TERSE, WusGood.black, Enclave and Anti-Heroin Chic. She hates public speaking, has two sisters who are way better writers than her and thinks unicorns laugh when we say they aren’t real. Tweets @ gravitystephens / https://gervannastephens.wordpress.com/

Special FeaturerbdKailey Tedesco, poetry, special feature

Kailey Tedesco: To Suck Dry

Kailey Tedesco's books She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publications) and These Ghosts of Mine, Siamese (Dancing Girl Press) are both forthcoming. She is the editor-in-chief of a Rag Queen Periodical and a performing member of the NYC Poetry Brothel. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can find her poetry featured or forthcoming in Prelude, Prick of the Spindle, Bellevue Literary Review, Vanilla Sex Magazine, and more. For more information, please visit kaileytedesco.com. 

Special FeaturerbdKailey Tedesco, poetry, special feature
Kailey Tedesco: To Suck Dry
Special FeaturerbdAshley Mares, special feature, poetry

Ashley Mares: Unclean Hands

Ashley Mares is the author of Maddening Creatures (Aldrich Press, forthcoming), The Deer Longs for Streams of Water (Flutter Press) A Dark, Breathing Heart (dancing girl press), and Killer (Ghost City Press, forthcoming). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Stirring, Whiskey Island, Sugar House Review, Glass Poetry Press, Prelude, PANK, and others. She is currently completing her J.D. in Monterey, Ca, where she lives with her husband. Read more of her poetry at ashleymarespoetry.wordpress.com and follow her @ash_mares2. 

Special FeaturerbdAshley Mares, special feature, poetry
Ashley Mares: Unclean Hands
Special FeaturerbdJuliet Cook, special feature, poetry

Juliet Cook: Rebirth the Parts I Hated

Juliet Cook is a grotesque glitter witch medusa hybrid brimming with black, grey, silver, purple, and dark red explosions. She is drawn to poetry, abstract visual art, and other forms of expression. Her poetry has appeared in a peculiar multitude of literary publications. You can find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.

Special FeaturerbdJuliet Cook, special feature, poetry
Juliet Cook: Rebirth the Parts I Hated