summertime
-after b.
of epidemic love
& low-hanging fruit
they said, make chaste women
of us
of hot grit($)
turkey melt depression
deep-sugar, red lips & loosies
my face against your breasts
heartbeat congregation
carryout tenders thinking
about you & sin
in the corner of my sight
forever twenty-one
pink lotion n senegalese twists
my nappy edges
flat my square hips
hard, untranslatable
& low-hanging fruit
they said, make chaste women
of us
of hot grit($)
turkey melt depression
deep-sugar, red lips & loosies
my face against your breasts
heartbeat congregation
carryout tenders thinking
about you & sin
in the corner of my sight
forever twenty-one
pink lotion n senegalese twists
my nappy edges
flat my square hips
hard, untranslatable
& Eucharist
Anansi On Capitalism
There is no open space between the eye of a dollar
And the knees of a one-horse, open economy.
Webs. Correction: web. Incredible, edible ideologies
At warp speed. The rappers call them pies. I
Say nothing
and steal slices from the tongues
Of my children.
Their windowsills bare,
I coddle their grief
and bid them a taste of
A true trick;
Pigeons make seams up
My walls. They can hear the sound of me
Coming and going and telling my stories
Late into the night feeling their ears pop
Until the sound ceases.
These mountains I promised,
I carry.
Even in the dead of Queensbridge,
housing denials, tia's refused sofabed,
cold ketchup & french fry offerings
I am formless dying of hunger.
My wailing pierces the abdomens of water-stricken
Igbo-speaking children of Detroit. You can come here,
But it takes time to get lost. You escape,
But I call my web a sleeping beast.
I watched your father bet the tax money
Your mother cried when you got knocked
I heard the tractors dig up the earth
inconsiderate of your bones.
Nigga, I told you:
them pieces of
them pies is a full belly.
Nothing lasts forever.
My eyes heavy with rest,
I tell
I carry
I conquer
And maybe, brother,
maybe you never die.
Shakeema Smalls is a writer from Georgetown, SC by way of Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Tidal Basin Review, Kweli Journal, The Fem, Blackberry: A Magazine, The Feminist Wire, Radius, Sugared Water, A/Muse, and others.
