Two Poems
Straight, Pike, and Tuck
While crossing the bridge to 1-40,
10 miles 'till home, my husband
asks if I ever rev the gas to 90,
pound my sole to pavement,
hard swerve into traffic—
if I ever dream of a parachuteless
plummet into denim estuary, worries
melting while hitting mock 10.
I tell him I do, but for me, it’s not the end.
I see three-digit dives into bridge basins
as baptism, Mary genuflecting beneath
the water’s rim.
There's purity in weightless
suspension, rapture in the fall.
God catch me before I land.
There's always a cord
dangling like a rosary, a vest, a net
of blue to break my fall.
That’s all we want— to be sanctified
by the absence of ground. To be feather
knowing the plunge won’t plug the geyser.
And maybe that’s what we crave;
a clear mind, the sky disappearing
into salt and Celsius.
Belly-Full of Gospel
Each morning my grandma rises to find her Bible
still breathing, belting her favorite aria. A lion,
a well, a sacrifice. Crack-of-dawn, coffee-stained,
scrolls making music at 6 am. Each page turns a chord
she knows better than hot water cornbread and collard
greens. Wailing Blessed Assurance, What a Friend to crackling
bacon–belly-full of gospel summoning spirit to be there
in the midst. Her back buckle and hand wave awakening
a holy ghost–Bash-sha- Shadrach, Meshach–tongue-speaking
spells cast out the demons haunting this old house. “While
I’m on this tedious journey”—a sovereign song soothing
her aching hands. Walk with Me, she asks, inviting
Him in the room. What a meditation, a ritual
to welcome Holy into a place held together by broken bread.
A sacred invitation to dine with her and the browning
hash. Nothing but the Blood and sunrise slicing sound—
stirring a tent revival lasting till nightfall across
her wobbling kitchen table.
A previous iteration of this poem was first published in Flypaper Lit.
Khalisa Rae is a poet and journalist in Durham, NC. She is the author of the chapbook Real Girls Have Real Problems. Her poetry can be found in Crab Fat, Damaged Goods, Hellebore, Terse, Sundog Lit, PANK Tishman Review, and the Obsidian, among others. She is the winner of the Bright Wings Poetry contest, the Furious Flower Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, and the White Stag Publishing Contest, among others. Currently, she serves as Managing Equity Editor at Carve Magazine and Writing Center Director at Shaw University. Her debut collection, Ghost in a Black Girls Throat, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in 2021.
Artwork: “Nov 3rd” by Madhawi AlGwaiz
Madhawi AlGwaiz is a visual artist born and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She mainly creates portraits inspired by her home country, the people around her, dramatic 2000s Khaleeji shows, tacky graphics, cursed TikTok content, and plants. She likes to cook, read, and hate-watch trash TV. Her mediums of choice are mostly colored pencils and acrylics. You can follow her work on Instagram at @bybsew