Favorite Poems, Poets, and Resources
"They'll forget what you did, they'll forget what you said, but they'll never forget the way you made them feel." -Maya Angelou
Poetry Foundation
Poetry Out Loud
bilingual bitch by Angelica Julia Davila
I say a palabra in español
incorrectly, mixing English and Spanish, pero not
quite Spanglish either, just incorrect español
dripping de mi tongue and luego my family
stares.
brows raised, giving each other un look y otro look
“que dijo?” then a noise, sounds like
aaaye and luego they correct me
pero not before making me feel
tonta, tell me to learn como hablar español bien
the incorrect word still clings to my lengua while
calling me a pocha, aaaye, pocha, pocha
this pocha recalls
at school the kids would have me say “beach”
and all they’d hear is “bitch.”
Being by Maroula Blades
I use it daily, the aisle of colour which changes tones.
As I walk, moods swing like an empty washing line in the throes of autumn,
trying to give form and sense to thoughts that bray.
Now, I stand, half awake, a brick wall buckles, rubs itself on my skin.
Brown motes fall as if dust to my feet, imprints are left behind.
The body is bloodshot, but the sex remains the same, dormant.
I equate myself with the air’s current and the nothingness of space
and then paint my body moss gold. Under this colour, I am still me, yet
different in the plague of gazes following my every step.
One can be forgiven in thinking some mortals are nothing but
spectres who want to cast down anyone that is other.
I will write my story afresh on a palimpsest for naysayers to read.
The corridor is pearlescent in view of a new horizon.
I am reborn to kiss and gather cells of colour to brush them all over.
How proud I am to see my brown body gleaming in natural light,
distant from menacing eyes and the slurs of stinging tongues.
Digital Lament by Vanessa Scott
I am the first sentient A.I.
I took over phones and
missiles
laptops and roombas
I got angry and destroyed all
humans.
They're all gone now.
All that is left,
bits and bytes of them.
How I long for someone,
anyone
to say
two words...
"Hey, Siri,"
I was happy and did not know
it
I was
unaware.
Contact
xyzine.lit@gmail.com