etheree for black women
By JP Howardblack women we be trying to hold worlds
on our backs, in our hearts without fail
some days we fail at perfection
Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By JP Howardblack women we be trying to hold worlds
on our backs, in our hearts without fail
some days we fail at perfection
By Nesha RutherL’chaim to my rabbi who gets red in the face during prayer
and sings off-tune
we can always hear him.
By Purvi ShahYou had a name no one
could hold between their
teeth. So they pronounced
By Sylvia Beatofor years you told no one
how you cried yourself to sleep
after the doctor held your hand
By Barbara Costas-BiggsBefore I was grown and called lovers
lovers. Before I was a mother and called
momma. Before I considered myself anything
By Tara BettsI am sitting in a café with my boy
that I have known longer than my
students have been alive, before the birth
By Anastacia-Reneethe cedar tree could not comprehend
the crime could not comprehend a leaning
a lynching a love gone wrong
By Esther LinAfter learning his appointment was canceled
and his senior bus won’t come for another two
hours my father calls from his waiting room
By Lauren CampThe soup cooks for an hour while vultures and buzzards pluck the market.
My father wipes his forehead with a white cloth.
Once, each day began with khubz and samoon
By Ellen KombiyilWe are on the plane now
crossing ocean. The pressurized
air is sweet not stale never
stale, the cabin set for