The Poetry Kit

HOME     POETRY KIT COURSES     SUBMISSIONS    CITN     NEWSLETTER     BOOKSHOP     BLOG

 

POETRY IN THE PLAGUE YEAR

Poems written during the Coronavirus Outbreak 2020

How to submit   -  Back to Contents

 

Sheree Mack

Tyne and Wear, UK

 

Sheree Mack is a Creatrix living on the North East Coast of England. She facilitates visual journaling workshops, nationally and internationally, supporting women in their exploration of their authentic voices.She is currently writing about traveling and working in Iceland as well as the next instalment of her creative non-fiction memoir. More of her work is available at livingwildstudios.com.

 

Poem completed on 29th April 2020

 

Below floors, the black girl dreams of flying home

 

Midnight. This mothering body dreams

the River Oti coursing verdant hills.

To slip beneath the current;

song to my skin, balm to my howls. 

 

White tulips erupt from my breasts

to drip upon bare black feet;

hungry fires to satisfy

white hands and white mouths. 

 

Mistress, you, walks the marbled 

staircase,  swishing silks 

and pearls. I hold his tiny fists 

destined to be used against me.

 

Within these walls, there is no room

for self-love. Daily, I’m forced 

to destroy myself to make you feel 

slim and safe and beautiful. 

 

Smoke, thunder, rain, black dahlias 

bloom from my wrists to fall through 

floorboards like the giggles 

that echoes from the upper world.