EP: No Good Bones by Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.Life is short, and I’ve shortened minein a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,a thousand deliciously ill-advised waysI’ll keep from my children. The world is at leastfifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservativeestimate, though I keep this from my children.For every bird there is a stone thrown at … Continue reading EP: No Good Bones by Maggie Smith

EP: Oracle of the Povo by Dambudzo Marechera

Her vision’s scrubland Of out-of-work heroes Who yesterday a country won And today poverty tasted And some to the hills hurried their thirst And others to arson and blasphemy Waving down tourists and buses Unleashing havoc no tongue can tell – Her vision’s Droughtstricken acres Of lean harried squatters And fat pompous armed overlords Touching … Continue reading EP: Oracle of the Povo by Dambudzo Marechera

Grace Never Showed

Song said the sound was sweetbut it went down like tamarind We haven't been savedwe're lost in plain sightSunday’s hymn isn't meStepfather taught us fearGrace never materializedTen unrelieved years passed She's just an old rumorI am here, but there'sno safety and no escortjust a wilted, rotted faithWere homeless wretches, whose snared flesh did fail So … Continue reading Grace Never Showed

EP: An Hymn to the Morning By Phillis Wheatley

Attend my lays, ye ever honour'd nine, Assist my labours, and my strains refine; In smoothest numbers pour the notes along, For bright Aurora now demands my song. Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies, Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies: The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays, On ev'ry leaf the … Continue reading EP: An Hymn to the Morning By Phillis Wheatley

EP: Someone Leans Near By Toni Morrison

Someone leans nearAnd sees the salt your eyes have shed. You wait, longing to hearWords of reason, love or playTo lash or lull you toward the hollow day. Silence kneads your fearOf crumbled star-ash sifting downClouding the rooms here, here. You shore up your heart to run. To stay.But no sign or design marks the … Continue reading EP: Someone Leans Near By Toni Morrison