unpolished, unfinished, unpublished works

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

---

wild fires

extreme temperatures

extreme disasters

the flicker

of the

flames

snap loudly,

it

is up to us

to fight

back the flames

and if you

don’t step up to the front

lines now, then we

will never be safe.

it

is up to us

to rally.

---

oxygen

write it down without a structure

force out the idea by shaping letters into words

and words into phrases

and phrases into sentences

don’t stop because you can’t

find the breakthrough

right now

or the thread

or the theme

because it will shape itself

when you have enough

for the poem to breathe

the inhale

the exhale

will take on a pattern

and you will discover

the truth when you

loosen the grip

so that the lungs can

e x p a n d

filling up the page like the air

e x p a n d s on the inhale

from your abdominal

stretching to your back

before the exhale

don’t struggle

or obsess

because the breath is

alive.

---

earned

I don’t trust no one,

so I sit in the back of the classroom

where I can see everyone.

I just moved here,

and I keep my hoodie up and only speak

when she talks directly to me.

I keep my airpods in

until she asks everyone in class

to put our phones up or on chargers.

I hesitate to disconnect

because I won’t be able to hide

behind any laptop screen or music.

I listen to her share

her poem about the fears she has

for her future mixed race children.

I read the list of prompts

she handed to me since I

don’t have a school issued MacBook.

I notice she checks on each student

and gives them goldfish or pop tarts from her desk

when they ask if she has any snacks for them today.

I freeze when she sits

across from me to ask if I have chosen a topic

and the audience yet like it says to do on the board.

I keep my eyes down and shrug

as she encourages the few phrases I wrote

asking me to elaborate and keep writing.

I look up as she pauses waiting for me

to respond, so I nod and pick up my pencil

to keep writing in the notebook she gave me yesterday.

---

blueprint

Population approximately 3,000. Arrival times vary for citizens. Adults patrol assigned posts. Scholars maneuver around obstacles finding alternate routes that will ultimately get them to a temporary destination. An individual merges with another forming a cluster. Clusters grow into crowds of friends and acquaintances. Tall tables are hard to find after 7:05 AM, so scholars sit crossed-leg or stretched-out on the Socratic Stairs--a set

of 10

giant steps

designed

for flexible seating

that extends

15 yards wide.

Corralled to the corner of the building rapidly growing in size each minute that passes from 7:00 AM to 7:20 AM. The metal gate lifts seconds before the first bell. Anticipation builds.

riiinnnngggg

Bodies move in one pack

flooding the main hallway.

Migration from east to west

citizens diverting into sub-streets

navigating constant-changing traffic patterns

in the provided 10 minute commuter timeframe.

---

flight

They don’t want their kids going to that school-—beeping metal detectors, rusting chain-link fences, and decreasing teacher retention. That’s why so many families are fleeing the city claiming they want out of the hustle and bustle-—white flight. Brown v. Board of Education attempted to desegregate schools in 1954, but you can’t stop people from moving...do you see the irony? They want to claim racism is over, yet the words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. are still true today: We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. What they want is to divide us out in the open, blatantly and unapologetically racist while denying their positions’ discriminatory foundation. Silent systemic institutionalized racism stops the wheels of progression, for all.

---

state-mandated testing

A. Twenty-two scholars

silently sit in desks rows columns. one five-hour standardized test twenty-five minute lunch one brand new dictionary one pencil one yellow highlighter and as many restroom breaks as one wants.

B. Two and a half hours

quickly pass and ten scholars remain. Working, writing, reading, thinking, bubbling, scanning, revising, editing. They don’t know one another, but they know one another. They are black and brown.

C. One white female educator

actively encourages, wakens, redirects re-testers; the ones who failed previously and are now pulled from general population to try yet again to pass a required standardized state test that does not measure intelligence but rather an ability to regurgitate test-taking strategies and definitions in a white-washed formulaic manner.

D. all the above

---

stereotyped

Sometimes teachers be treating me different,

different like they think you…dumb.

Dumb like assuming I don’t know stuff,

stuff I already know before they teach it.

---

room E109

Man, football was so hard today Miss he says

balancing a plate from the cafeteria in one hand

and dapping her up with the other

(fist bump under, over, directly, wipe nose, thumb down)

That’s Varsity for you, she replies encouragingly.

Hey mom...it’s just not a good day today Bree announces

her arms wide open as she approaches Mrs. W who sits

perched on her hallway desk; they embrace in their daily hug

(Bree prefers the physical closeness with those she trusts)

I am sorry you are having a bad day dear she replies sincerely.

Hey Mrs. Woodson, how are you today? AJ inquires

walking from his classroom on the other end of the hall to her,

his former English teacher, fist-bumping her as they engage

in conversation while she continuously fist-bumps, greets,

and handshakes both her and her colleague's students.

Sup…Sean motions with a head nod as he finishes

fist-bumping the other three English teachers before

smirking at Mrs. Woodson, always the last fist-bump.

Have a great day! she exclaims over the potential music

blasting through his airpods. He smiles and salutes her.

---

Black History Month means one of two things:

School continues as usual with no recognition whatsoever

because February is really about Valentine’s Day and love

and sending flowers to your crush and a book display titled:

Can my one liner get me checked out?

or

Suddenly all of my classes are simultaneously stopping

to study slavery, the south during Jim Crow laws,

the Civil Rights Movement, speeches by MLK Jr. and

ignoring the fact that our lives are not defined by just pain.

Will it ever be a culmination of Black history we had intentionally learned up to February 1st?

---

perspective

I just don’t understand why we have

to keep talking about racism...

says the kid in the front row.

Where is your ID badge?

the assistant principal asks

holding his hand up in my face.

Take your hoodie off

my history teacher commands.

No do-rags allowed at school.

someone barks as I go to the bathroom.

Where should you be?

Wake up!

Where’s your homework?

Answer these multiple choice questions.

There’s 45 minutes to write this essay.

You failed your English test again - why don’t you take this seriously?

Pull up your pants.

Follow me to the office.

Another Monday

in high school.

---

firefly

she could not stop his tears

from splashing gently

into his palms resting open

in his lap motionless.

Water cannot nurture stone,

hardened by a world

chiseling him since his first breath,

so he's satisfied just to breathe

because society devalues his intellect, she begs him to catch his breath,

but he can't

because for four-hundred years

there's been a knee on his neck.