Tradition for What?

Posted bySynnika Chizoba LoftonPosted incommunity, mailbox weekly, PoemsTags:, , , ,

Too fast to
wear a crown.
Uneasy. Heavy

is the head.
STILL. Raised
on a different

frequency,
moving skillfully
with sharks,

like Miles Davis
swimming in
sound.

SOUND is a
temple. The
gamble

crawls on skin,
and I change
lanes. Stuck

in this blues,
living with
designed

purpose. God’s
will on flesh.
Them levels

be dangerous.
Bones tell stories.
I survey damage

and find ways
around the
savagery.

This unforgiving
cosmos loves
the art of hustle.

I stretch across
hot concrete,
making waves

until home
provides that
platform.

In stereo, snakes
move through
streets, bringing

traffic to a halt.
Greg Lee keeps
the time,

drumming on
the dashboard.
Djembes still

get loose,
still talk that
talk. No matter

the hour.
Interstate 64
is not for

the weak.
We run this
route and

play this beat,
like kings without
traditional

crowns. On
to the next.
We craft

episodes,
while adapting
to the grooves

in the road.

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Published by Synnika 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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