Ready_for_I-64_and_America’s_Smile

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

Switching lanes on Interstate 64.
Backups don’t mean much. Latin jazz

vibes. Surfing on steel drums, congas,
keys, melodies. Police cruisers patrol

the spots between Military and Brambleton–
ravens setting speed traps, but the

people smirk and keep pushing 80,
single occupancy vehicles in the HOV

lane. The coffee brews somewhere.
Small hustlers get to it beneath roaming

sunlight–made for this moment. We
hover above brake lights until a sea

of pulsing red forces us off the main
route to another part of Norfolk. Traffic

may have the upper hand for a few
ticks but certainly not for the rest

of the day.

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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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