Suffocating Skin

Posted bySynnika Alek-Chizoba LoftonPosted inmailbox weekly, PoemsTags:, , , ,

Scrape knuckles against
figurative concrete,

looking for daylight,
tucking earbuds into

ears, listening to Fela
Kuti. Traffic blurs. To

be human is to walk
along a tightrope. I

levitate, hover above
polluted frequencies.

Above the fray is where
lesser gods like to find

sanctuary. Cool, like
jazzy rhythms vibrate

beneath my steps.
This path is heavy.

The boulevard bakes
in afternoon sunlight.

Don talks about the
price of eggs, gasoline.

Liberation falls from
my mouth, trying to

be a butterfly in this
American cosmos.

Funny. Fela chants
down Babylon or neo-

colonial rule. I vibe for
the moment. No tension

or pressure. A sovereign
man testing the limits

of this human shell,
this suffocating skin.

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Published by Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton

"Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton is an award winning poet, the president and CEO of Guerrilla Ignition LLC, host of a Nationally Syndicated radio show, and an educator, teaching literature at Chesapeake Bay Academy and English courses at Norfolk State University. Lofton has recorded more than one hundred and fifty CDs, albums, CD-singles, and mixtapes of poetry, including his highly praised debut, The New Breed. He is the author of twelve books and the founder of Riot Speech, a musical genre combining performance poetry with traditional musical forms, such as Rock, Jazz, and Hip Hop. His poems have been published in Experience Reality Magazine, Quay: A Journal of the Arts, UpStreet: A Literary Magazine, and, in 2014, Lofton has been featured in Blind Sided Magazine. He is a regular on Virginian television programs such as The Hampton Roads Show and Chesapeake’s Thinking Out Loud on WCTV. He teaches World Literature, British Literature, and Composition, while touring the country, performing at literary festivals, musical festivals, poetry readings, open mics, concerts, high schools, and colleges."

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