ICE QUEEN

Year Four, First Day of September I, Agnostic What I like most about you is how simple you make me feel. When we met, I asked if you believed in a power, or anything close to it, and you answered with your black hair. Now I know you believe in long days, fruit-laden summers, hair swept over church façades, leaving Southern churches to smolder. At tonight’s dinner, you draw me to you the way light tangles through a grocery store. I am your freckled moth, and you encompass me.

Year Three, Fourth Friday of October My Culture Is Not Your Costume My culture is not a Halloween costume With high-pigmented face...

Year Three, First Friday of July On My Mama [Prelude] May 22nd Happy Birthday to me and momma. You labored until the first prayer on Jumma. Named me "halo around the moon" after the first one you met because she predicted my existence and insisted you would name me after her. Shout out to that هالة for dreaming of me and for me. Shout out to you, momma, for dreaming for me and with me. You could have let me disperse into whispers when my father ghosted, pretended y'all glor