Khalypso

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Khaya “Khalypso” Osbourne is a Sacramento-based activist, actor, and poet. They are fat, black, neurodivergent, queer, and an agender badass. Their work can be found in Francis House, Rigorous Journal, Blood Orange Review, Calamus Journal, Crab Fat Magazine, Black Napkin Press, Rising Phoenix Review, and Shade Journal, as well as a few others. They were a poetry editor for Cerurove Magazine, Culaccino Magazine and the Social Media Manager of Black Napkin Press. A Sacramento Poetry Slam Champion that became a member on 2018 Sac Unified Poetry Slam Team and participated in the 2018 National Poetry Slam in Chicago, IL. The team ranked top 20 in the National Poetry Slam Finals. Their chapbook, The Hottentot Lights the Gas Herself, was a runner up for the 2018 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize. They are the 2019 Sacramento Youth Poet Laureate, a Leo-Virgo cusp. Source

Diaspora #1

my joy is a dead language.

cherubs sob when i pass them by

as if my fingers carry the wilt

of baby’s breath. i lie in bed & suddenly

i’m closer to my ghosts.

another boy tells me he loves me &

i cannot look him in the eye. another

mother says, “smile, child,” & the clouds

open up to swallow me whole.

 

the last time i loved, the words died in my belly.

the sparks quit next, & then the boy.

i say i cannot carry another day & the shadows

rejoice. i say i’m going to love me today

& i can hear laughter.

 

worry about me. i am not well. a child

has gone missing within me & left

not even detritus. all the things in this world

set to kill me encroach upon

the one smile i can offer a new day.

i have said it once & if i do not say

it again, the tigers clawing the insides

of my brain will never sleep: home is nowhere

when you are a stolen thing. an heirloom of haint

& hate.

Published:

2019

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2021

Themes:

Disability

Identity

LGBTQ+ Experience

Love & Relationships

Womanhood

Literary Devices:

Alliteration

the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession

Metaphor

a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic

Personification

the attribution of human qualities to a non-human thing