a poem by Shaunteri Skinner

she fell into the burns of her past as they lay thick & thin

on her brain,

the emptiness was so full,

it was so well-rounded & welcoming.

kissed by growth’s pain in too many ways to describe how she

could bear to breathe,

ignoring the calms of eves or news of life’s chances in whatever direction.

she felt as if her waking was

misbehavior until she woke out of that dream of killers that she kept  repeating At night,

those who laughed right next to her with blood all over their hands

causing blood to be her brain ever so often.

until all of the flesh fell back onto her

bones,

the rest of her left the world, never want-

ing to have gone,

but never wanting to come back either.

being trapped in her

life & the life that history

made for her caused all of

the pain that she would

ever need to grow,

to be Black, woman &

beautiful was the best that she

ever had to be,

But proving it to those

who mattered most

Seemed like new & old crushed dreams.

published in Genre: Urban Arts First Edition