when the barometer of civility intensifies
in the city of babylon
i pledge allegiance to my whistling kettle
steeped invitation for a reckoning
hovering over bare feet planted in wise silence
a poet asked if the sky is always this blue
when a person says insurrection all I can hear
is a fire bending flame
kissing shelled flowers
i do not mistake ash for seeds
i have yet to wake up american
rather cryptographer of white noise
freedom as flesh-caked combat boots
voting as euphemism for liberal placation
the golden rule as doublespeak
for moving the goalpost of patriotism
a writer asked if we be pessimist what will that bring
when the barometer of civility intensifies
in the city of babylon
i pledge allegiance to abolition
no more defiant appendages seeking refuge in amendments
pressing on calloused feet longing for saccharine vert
in the meantime
i mind my Black ass business
sit on this tree stump
body rank and file to the sun
for this is not my problem to fix
MILISA COLEMAN is a gender non-conforming writer, visual storyteller, and Cleveland native based in Oakland, CA. Their work illustrates overlapping themes in nature, the human condition, and transcendence; contributing to the genre of ecopoetry by Black authors. They were a 2020 recipient of the Black Writers Matter Scholarship through The Writing Salon. They participated in the Spring 2019 cohort of Twelve Literary Arts’ Baldwin House Urban Writing Residency. Their work has appeared in or is forthcoming in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Tiger Moth Review, and Root Work Journal. They hold a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media from Cleveland State University.
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