Centering_a_Black_Woman’s_Experience, Not_Colonial_Values

Posted bySynnika Alek-Chizoba LoftonPosted inPoems, mailbox weeklyTags:, , ,

Surrounded by hostile theater or 
strange COSPLAY. NO they do not 
protect Black women. NO they are 
not masked Democrats or Leftists 
or Socialists or Outside Agitators. 
Keyboard warriors spew SMOKE. 
The Founder’s babies prance around
with Massa’s lips, eyes, and nose, 
cracking the whips of decaying 
nationalism. Hush. History whispers
brutality. AMERICANS shuck and jive 
for broken values and Patriotism, 
pledging allegiance to dysfunction. 
SMDH. No fear. Just a few far Right 
gladiators, pumping fists, trying 
to make impressions, sporting white 
masks, blue Polos, and tan skinny 
jeans, grunting for colonial era white 
men. MAGA-daddy occupies an 
unearned spot. Right wing DEI is 
real–Affirmative Action from 1776. 
On the Metro train, them boys exhale 
old dragon-fire. Too turnt up to crack 
a smile or worry. Cameras flash. 
Nothing to see here. Just a dance
for the algorithm. I survey daylight,
craft a life in the margins, and grin.
I stopped watching cartoons
a long timSurrounded by hostile theater or 
strange COSPLAY. NO they do not 
protect Black women. NO they are 
not masked Democrats or Leftists 
or Socialists or Outside Agitators. 
Keyboard warriors spew SMOKE. 
The Founder’s babies prance around
with Massa’s lips, eyes, and nose, 
cracking the whips of decaying 
nationalism. Hush. History whispers
brutality. AMERICANS shuck and jive 
for broken values and Patriotism, 
pledging allegiance to dysfunction. 
SMDH. No fear. Just a few far Right 
gladiators, pumping fists, trying 
to make impressions, sporting white 
masks, blue Polos, and tan skinny 
jeans, grunting for colonial era white 
men. MAGA-daddy occupies an 
unearned spot. Right wing DEI is 
real–Affirmative Action from 1776. 
On the Metro train, them boys exhale 
old dragon-fire. Too turnt up to crack 
a smile or worry. Cameras flash. 
Nothing to see here. Just a dance
for the algorithm. I survey daylight,
craft a life in the margins, and grin.
I stopped watching cartoons
a long time ago.

THANKS FOR READING! SPREAD THE WORD AND SUBSCRIBE TO MAILBOX WEEKLY

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."

Leave a comment