Late Autumn Talks in Tongues

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

Balancing weight
for the fifth time
this week. Subtle.
Heavy. A bluesy
rhythm set to the
tone of American
hustle, muscle.
Carlos Santanna
strums a melody
for a sun hanging
on a cold day
in late November.
Nothing moves
outside besides
random crows
and Black Friday
sales. Crafting
lines around moods
has been the way,
the method, the
practice, the thing,
a beast I wrestle
with because life
is like that sometimes.
Just given enough
nutrition to survive
on, like an abusive
mother handing out
crumbs and scraps
to her own children.
I play up here, like
Icarus without his
father’s teachings,
without an engineer’s
rules. Stretching
out blue sky to suit
my purpose. I play
it safe, assess them
funky wings before
gambling with time.
Risk management
is a religion. The
concrete jungle has
rules. Savage beauty
authors a form of
decay, but I hear
a different drummer,
the gentle chords
of a barbaric creed.
I got autumn, like
every other issue,
rubbing her favorite
balm into my temples.

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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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