Quotes and Poems: Day 50

Quote:

"The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Poem:

Grain Memory

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BY MARLANDA DEKINE-SAPIENT SOUL

A wishbone branch falls

from my Grandma Thelma's oak

for me.

What do you know about magic? e1 asks.

E bends e old body down, turns

the wishbone branch into

a cross, places it around my neck.

I am strapped at the Black River's right shoulder,

remembering my Grandpa Mose never wore anything

but church.

My purple head begins to feel

cold as clergy, parched. I ask for water.

E gives me water and rice, says to repeat

after em:

I am fly from nature. Nature fly. I am fly from

nature. Nature

fly. I am fly from nature. Nature

fly. I am fly

from nature. Nature fly. I am

fly from nature. Nature fly. I am fly from nature. Nature fly.

Ah, I get it! It's an affirmation, I say

and e laughs in windoceansongs.

E whispers, Do not be trapped by language.

E voice begins to beat my chest

cavity in rhythm, chaff threshed from grain,

separating me from need.

I thought I'd snapped that wishbone branch myself. No.

I am fly from nature. Nature fly.

At dusk,

gleaming marigolds gathered

beneath my feet, singing:

We were stolen shipped across the Atlantic

invasive is a word I heard

stolen thrash thrash thrash and we speak in bloom