Image: Pharoah Egbuna (Durham, NC)
Poem: Rashida James-Saadiya (Durham, NC)
I’m not seeing
spirits
they live here
under skin
embedded in bone
a constant reminder
there are white jackets
lurking beyond your door
don’t move
they will smell you
sense your difference
cut you open
place diagrams
around your pain
neglect the wounds
your mother left
the voices
hanging from your ear
whole or broken
neurosis spreads
unwanted beauty
they will drown you
paint over the sadness
stitch the cracks
fill the hard to reach
with short-term mending
stay here
covered in darkness
quiet the memories
that hang from your chest
rock the pain away
madness is contagious
they build cages for things like you
but dear heart were born with wings
leave the harshness of this sun
for the freedom of the rain
leap forward, create a new world
own the wisdom of your beauty
be resilient, be free