Dance With Me

There was a time
your hips moved with mine
You stood by me
We were syncopated

There was a time
you pulled me close
and led my body around the floor
I remember your heartbeat
the rumble of your chest as you sung
I always pressed my ear closer
when you sang our song

There was a time
before now
when we could hear the music in each other's minds
even from across a room
we were in step

Then that thing happened
and you stepped on my foot
and I stopped trusting your lead
but our dance was good

Line dancing is nice
but having a partner is the best
Swaying over the floor
until the song is over
and we are both smiling and out of breath

I desire to dance again
Let's find our rhythm again
We've danced alone long enough to know we can
Let's put the steps together
Can you hear the count
5...6... 7...8

Come, my love
Dance with me

photo retrieved from https://pngtree.com/so/Dancing-with-many-people

Neverwas

I broke a branch of my heart
tying knots around it
trying to staunch the beating when he came close
I broke it before his reasons for checking up
took it for a ride

kicking at the gourds
I've stubbed my feelings
for lack of words in the subtleties
of the vague shades of grey left for me to decipher
this puzzle has no edges
no matching colors nor shapes

he pinched himself awake
and left me dreaming
I guess I am prettier this way
surprised the sun has come back
to shine on me another day

us is ragged at the edges
and we’ve never worn it
I’m standing naked sewing together
words never said but always said
I’m still naked when I put them on

this is the last time I listen to
lips stuttering love
broken syllables help me understand
we don’t speak the same
and maybe we never did

Tumblr | 3EyesOpen | Neverwas
kalonia jennings 2016

Angry. Sassy. No!

Can't find my reflection anywhere.

I have to exist relating to chameleons mimicking me.

I once had to ask if being ghetto is a form of white-face.

How can I assimilate into myself?

I'm starting to wonder how far this appropriation goes. 

Did they steal the words from the mouths from my Griots
to write their way into significance? 

I'm coming for my images locked away in centuries of history. 

I'm told I don't belong in an Anywhere.

So, I'ma reach back and
slap the black back into the places between east vs west,
between continents which ignore my Mother,
between dialogues and discussions
that make her work at shaping existence insignificant.

We have progressed so far backwards.

Bragging about growing grass in the desert 

then complaining about being broke from bills.

We dig pools that grow stagnant without care
then slinging guilt for droughts.
I can't make sense of this thing I'm supposed to want to do

Those tied to the earth had their head and hearts in the cosmos.

They found healing in the weeds.
They never touched the same flowing waters twice.

I've noticed how natural living is enslaved

like those of the middle passage; they are

chained to greed, dehumanized, and made to fight for freedom.

My ancestor's magic locked in stores where her children can't reach. 

I have become my own conjurer.

And I invoke my reflection in these words. 

My ancestors never stepped into the same being twice. 

Seek Me

When my fingers are in your mouth
and you are
somewhere between hysteria and sleep
as the wetness of my tongue
makes hairs curl in the humidity
seek me

When your eyes can't break from me watching
the beautiful contortions and intricacies
of pleasure race across your face
when I can't concentrate anymore
when I no longer seem myself
seek me

When my face is lost under the heaviness
of sweat infested locs
and my breath won't calm itself
when my words come from a depth that
reverberates within you like a good baseline
seek me
because

When you are with me
entering me
tasting me
lost in me
I find you

and I call your name
when you have found my hiding place

Most of the Time

Lift up these words
and you would expose yourself to
the spaces in the realities of my mind
places I won't let just anybody into
but everyone gets to see

Look deeply at the gaps between the letters
and I can promise you
you can hear my happiness there
you can see my future in the white spaces on this page

I love deep
but not with feelings
I love like life expands
taking these words I attempt to dig into your chest
and press my cheek to green hues of your spirit
just to remind you
you love
you love like life expands

Moments like this I tempt myself to feel
to feel the lonely I often read about
But then I sit and type words like these
I imagine you reading them
and it fills me up because you wrote them with me

Most of the time I'm like this
and not ashamed
but you lifted up these words
and saw the secret raw places in me
I can't hide again

I Can Tell

Your embrace is like the sweetest melody, enveloping me till I close my eyes.
That kiss tells me you're ready to let the outside world tend to itself for awhile.
You walk away too soon.
I want to feel your hand on my face again.
I lost myself for a moment with my lips on your wrist.
Your pulse was saying something.

I allow you to walk away from me, and before you take the second step, your hand extends behind you.
I don't make you have to say it twice.
My hand is in yours before you take the next step.

I keep my eyes on yours as you peel off your clothes. They say to keep touching you.
Tugging the shirt over your head, my fingers find their way to your spine, my lips your chest. That exhale said I'm doing just what you want me to.

Looking down at you, I love to watch the way your hands taste my thighs. The way they gulp my skin to the rhythm of the ride.
The sound emanating from your chest speak for your closed eyes and open mouth. I answer by kissing you and following your guiding hands. They say you're close.

The adjustment of silence between our bodies before you descend over me, is shattered by the way my legs wrap around your waist.
A hand between us touching both bodies as my hands glide over your head. My breath and teeth against your neck speak more words than I can gather.

Your pace stops and I open my eyes to the feeling of hands gulping my thighs, once again.
 You have something else to say, I can tell by the way your tongue moves.

4D

It took some time to get here.
The metronome of silver stands tick off
the choices I still don't know how to make.
I'm far behind my mission.
But, I hear, I'm right on time.

Can't seem to speak kindly to my insides.
The guilt of making it rain with time.
I made amends with the wrong path.
My roots are wide but shallow.
Here, I speak the symptoms.
There, I find the cause.

Cold fingers reach for the wobbles of light
cutting through the shadows.
I know I'm already there. It's already done.
Why do I feel half of the whole?
I see myself through another set of eyes.
What am I doing?
What have done?

I've found myself in another space.
Picked up, like a child,
and carried to the door to another life.
I have opened the door.
Now, I'm trying to adjust
to the momentary blindness of my ignorance.

It took some time to get here.
Do you know the way?