JUST ENOUGHNESS | BLACK ICARA | WORDLESSLY YOU GREET ME | WHILE I AM AWAY IN THE OTHER ROOM

 

JUST ENOUGHNESS

I love the roots of words. I loved discovering that the word “humility” comes from “humus” which means earth.

there is
the poignancy
of our Icarus within
unable to handle
our Black hubris
to the point of free falling
burned
by our own
higher-than-thou-ness

is there such a thing
as dreaming
just enough
so
the roots
of a splendor to be
are still
grounded
in Mother Earth’s
humility ?

(c) Julia Wright August 31, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

 

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BLACK ICARA

For my father who taught me the secrets of wing making

i was a little giddy girl
rising high

out of his exile
my father
made for me
the paper-written wings i needed
for my magical thinking

a little Black Icara,
i vied high
in French schools where
the like of Andre Gide
was taught

i was a Black princess
of the endless francophone sky
where prancing “Jim” Crow
had been said
to be shot down
until the Algerian war
and other anti colonial bids
for independence
reared their proud head

i was a little giddy girl
rising high –
till the day when
too close
to the western setting sun
my wings were burnt
and i was abused
and would have been raped
if it had not been
for my desperate resistance

today
i know the ancestral secret
of fabricating the sun-proof
truth-telling wings
that fly me daily to the front
of the battle
where colonial assault
and
the rape of the land
that our bodies represent
will be defeated

today
no longer a giddy girl
rising high
i have my feet
on the ground

(c) Julia Wright September 1, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

 

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WORDLESSLY YOU GREET ME

To Rachel

red hot tears
burning this paper
become words

words have
weightless wings
that fly me
to you

wordlessly
you greet me
beaming
and
send me back

(c) Julia Wright September 5, 2024. All Rights.

 

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WHILE I AM AWAY IN THE OTHER ROOM

To Rachel

while i am away in the other room
i have made sure
you are not alone
and that you are surrounded
with your favorite plants
and warmed
by slow burning candles

while i am away in the other room
i know
the sunbeams
will dance with you
and
gathering darkness
will warmly embrace you

and
if there is nobody
in the room
to watch over your last snapshot
because we have continued living
then
your gaze
will look out at the world
through our eyes

(c) Julia Wright September 7, 2024. All Rights Reserved to the Deer Park Sangha in deep gratitude for their chanting and meditation for my sister, Rachel.