Road Trip

it’s the two thousand three hundred twenty miles river flowing 
south only back peddled once but stayed full 
a vein carved out in the land 

the steam that whisper from the hot comb on the stove of the wooden panel house with no street name,
just a few turns kicking up dust following that pulling inside until you’re greeted with 

an applause from a screen door

lush jade valley swelling with heat and drawl voices stretched across a city then county lines 
that mix and match like socks who made it through a wash-n-dry and still found themselves
on a body with purpose

toss the head back laughter that sprints out of parted lips breathing and giving
color to the room  sounds of tongues who praise & remember and somehow can’t
figure out how they know mercy is merci

a black bottom  iron-wielded pot turned into magic 
with a pinch of salt, squirts of hot sauce and secrets—but good 
enough to salve and keep doing the greater works 

bebe it’s you
thighs, skinned knees, tawny arms with gold bracelets 
mama   aunty uncle jimmy’s truck 
and three cousins over that way 
it’s them with no time a face that looks like the matriarch 
and I am home

A Wreath for Surya Bonaly

your leotard bright and metallic
face aflame with passion 
quad toe loop with shoelaces
petrified by the stinging cold 
yet they would never see you

 they pressed the judas silver
onto your collar bone
cheapening you before the world 
your tears anointing the platform
of protest & betrayal 

you knew
that your face could not receive
the gracelessness masqueraded as victory
and you stretched your tights free
 forever black limbs 
into the air closed your eyes
and rose above the quartet
of jealous whispers,
suffocating hate 
 --to give the world  
a pearled onyx ass to kiss

Jessica E. Harris received her MFA in creative writing from American University. There she co-taught a course on Black feminism poetry through selections by Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, and the Black Girl Magic anthology. In 2018, she received honorable mention in the AWP Intro to Poetry Series. She was later nominated for Best New Poet by the Department of Literature at AU. Her poem “Baltimore Ain’t Hard Just to Live appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Poet Lore. She resides in Washington D.C.