Shadows (& other poems)
by T’challa Williams
Nobody likes darkness. It’s the one place you cannot see;
cannot easily balance, because your senses are jilted.
My senses are always jilted.
Always picking up on broken hearts, and broken minds.
I can smell rage before approach as if I were a pheromone,
flaring my nostrils and making my blood simmer.
But I’m not angry. The person next to me is. All the world is
cloaked in emotion and my entire nervous system is exposed
on my flesh.
Breathing with the depressed,
suffocating with the anxious.
But in darkness, I am draped in acceptance.
Each curve of density hugs my disproportions and celebrates
my fluff. My voice takes center stage and bellows in the emptiness
searching for a wall to fight.
My smile is wide and there are no eyes commenting in
facial contortions about my missing tooth.
I am beautiful in darkness.
A confident goddess, walking barefoot on the world’s emotions.
Spitting in the eyes of pity
I feed my power encased in the unknown;
embraced by knowledge unmeasured
I am truly a treasure
Breastplate of opulence
Radiant as the sun
My soul shines in shadows; applauded by what so many fear
Yet I hold dear
Loving all that I encompass, In this unforeseeable night
A confidence plight
Only visible
In the absence of light.
Green
I’d rather be seen in green,
Than dead,
in red!
Not puke green,
but Emerald City green
Not green with envy,
but I can Oscar the grouch!
I ain’t no slouch, more like
Kermit Thee Frog here,
on the scene
Mean, lean,
injustice fighting machine
Advocate of the feminine
And most likely, one of your favorite friends
I don’t wanna get in between your goals and things
I’m green like nature in spring
Full of life and seeds and rare breeds
I be,
growing and stretching
Catching lessons,
But, you c
Can catch these hands
If you betray me on my land
I love unmeasured, but will slaughter and untether
Abusers, users and constant accusers
I am green and keen like the Incredible Hulk
I am Bruce Banner,
trying to get home
