SAFETY GHAZAL

SAFETY GHAZAL

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2025

My heroes are negroes older and blacker than me.

Fermented melanin plus God is medicine. We still safe.

Not sure what it is about you, but I start to giggle

when I smell you, fiddle strings and sing. I feel safe.

Knowing you is like climbing to the highest building,

standing on my left leg on the roof’s ledge, still safe.

I once sealed my heart in a padded room, lit a match,

heard it go “Boom!” You repaired it to be steel-safe.

Farah, your whispered prayers make trap-beat melodies.

You bounce back like runners’ second winds. You heal safe.

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Written for Day 8 of National Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo