The Magician

My yoga teacher states that every micro second of the day We are exactly where we need to be So, too, when the love of my life spat in my face Poured bleach on my favorite dress Screamed with a fury that sounded like a summoning of satans most tormenting demons They say exorcisms happen […]

you in me

i culdn’t dare ask for a miracle. when i close my eyes i see myself shattering a thousand times. every disappointment & mis-take— they become me like honey touching my knee. when your fingers gently grace whatever piece of flesh is nearest yours there are many ways to say “let us do away with this”. […]

who knows

I hope when I send you text messages That they skip thru the contours of your pocket, absorbing the alert. i want to know there is a prayer out there with your name on it unbidden, erstwhile & unknown to you. the message seems less innocent, this way you’ve eclipsed my imagination, alchemized my womb […]

healing will be

Slip between the stillness of the morning Softly, softly every subtle mundanity falls at my feet Softly, softly wrap my arms around my rib cage Softly, softly Feel my heart recoil / Too sweet

happy honey poem

Lately I’ve been absorbing wounds like Swollen lymph nodes. Wet and pink. The size of a Fat kiss. I’ve had to make due, with the idea That I may just be accident prone. That I may attract pain because it is the single Most consistent aspect of this personal narrative. Because trauma will greet you […]

not-love

The reality is that there was never real love between us. You generate hunches at the beginning. He met my father once. My father suspected, and subsequently told me, he was using me for sex. I was almost raped by his friend, and when I told him, was blamed. I tried to quiet my voice, […]

who of you

I cannot tell you why the world looks upon you cruelly, and what’s more, why you didn’t survive it. Why, with every romance novel published, with every monolithic symbol this country bows at the feet of —your kind seems impossible. You were pure to me then before all our gravest fantasies about inherent safety were […]

who is she

do you remember, when we awoke after the five year expanse? where it seemed, the only thing we studied, without reserve, were our neuroses? what did we even tell eachother that the telepathy wouldn’t suffice? somehow you still require soothing in every interim somehow i can’t stop talking about you to every strange man i […]

the mother of all recipes

i want my poetry to be a home where mothers come to unload the herbs they’ve spent days collecting in every garden on the eastern seaboard. where deep insecurities are expressed in hushed tones to the sound of pounding down dried leaves. I’ll hear an old woman whisper from behind: that you can’t swallow a […]

with apologies to the great black women

I wish to pray unceasingly Till my hands turn arthritic and then Sterile white/ I don’t want to go to no hospital I want to close my eyes until I recognize the still pockets Of warmth as evidence of you. Can I please get lost. Unloose my consciousness Once and for all. You can […]

ankober yewondwossen

poems