God wears glow-in-the-dark acrylic nails, her favorite color is obsidian black,
she’s lactose intolerant & is tired of femme exploitation.
God buys gold hoop earrings at Dollar Tree & ain’t afraid to wear eyelash extensions
for two weeks straight even if the package reads “one-time use only.”
God says “hi” to everyone the moment she boards public transit & after she’s seated,
she speaks loudly into her phone while munching on hot Cheetos.
God carries a plastic bag with quarters, pennies & her passport cuz she knows
most of her followers ain’t [ ] & removal proceedings are always already a possibility.
God orders $1 fries, $1 cheeseburgers & $1 drinks at fast-food restaurants cuz
a gurl needs to live & sometimes thriving looks like surviving.
God checks her eyebrows on her phone every two hours & licks her index finger
to realign each hair particle before meeting up with da girls.
God walks into Metro PCS every three days for water damage services cuz she’s too often
weeping onto her Android—M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, & Sun—the deaths of Black girls.
God has hired a personal stylist cuz she don’t know no more how to be simultaneously ready
for a funeral, court hearing, birthday celebration, anniversary dinner & the club.
God has a Twitter account with 36 followers & it’s aiiight cuz she follows 794K folk & they
all Black femmes & the 36 that follow her hold her so she can hold the rest of the world.
2020
Regular
Contemporary
2023
Faith & Hope
Identity
Intersectionality & Culture
Womanhood
Allusion
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference
Anaphora
a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences
Couplets
two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit
Extended Metaphor
a metaphor that extends through several lines or even an entire poem