∞

Concrete Jungle

Flatbush cracks and sprouts
from sidewalk ketchup packet pansies,
cheese burger blooms,
crab clawed bud crawls
to pale sunlight.

Predator dollar vans
squeak and squeeze
through trees papered
with hustle and hunger.

People accustom to the
feel of grass between toes.
Our nature went left,
and landed us in
gum speckled Savannahs.
Coconut on the corner,
not quite out of reach,
but still cruel in New York wintertime.

Flatbush winds whip
through tall buildings,
party promotions like petals,
with an after note of Caribbean breeze.

 

Stone Mountain

Spring
Cherry blossom
Festival

Botanical
Gardens Centennial
Park

Racist
Stone sculpture, why are
Black people here?

Hotel
Shops queen henna
Bound in gold

Too sweet
Tea and gumbo
Brown

Prolonged stares
For flaunting
Blackness

Country
Red window
Shutters.

Aimless
Old & ambling
Cow

Perfumed
Country air speaks
Yesteryear.

Sharpness
To living indicates
Fear.

∞

Rowana Abbensetts is a writer and editor whose work has been published in several websites and chapbooks. She writes about womanhood, blackness and Caribbean culture.