a literary journal published by the Black Earth Institute dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society
Joyce Lee
And There Will Come a Day
And there will come a day when you will have to stare at my blood
one morning
and see me as filthy and floating panties in cold water
see me washed and worn again
see me bleached accidents surrounded by a little girl’s design but Grown Womyn sized –
twisted, you will see twisted one morning –
rung with barely a full twist, you will see me
more cotton than anything, I am.
You will learn that I’ll shrink before I’m destroyed and I’m not easily torn,
You will call my love of closeness my superpower more than my will to endure
You may all of a sudden see
all of this suddenly
one morning,
If I let you get to know me better . . .
If you earn the honor of still
being next to me
one morning,
I will need to see your face that first time
you see
my bloody panties soaking in cold water in the bathroom sink.
Joyce Lee is the 2009 & 2010 Oakland Grand Slam Poetry Champion, a frequented storyteller for Snap Judgments NPR and an 8th & 9th grade educator in the Bay Area. Joyce has toured internationally as a poet in countries such as Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the Bahama’s and Turkey. She has featured on TV One’s Verses & Flow and has been hired to perform for major corporations such as Google and Facebook. You can find out more about her by visiting www.themuseworkshop.com
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