BACKSLIDER (Poem)
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

BACKSLIDER (Poem)

I don’t wanna worship with my oppressors—

prey praying hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder

with one eye open.

Read More
PLANT MOM (Poem)
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

PLANT MOM (Poem)

I know I am depressed when I stop watering my plants.

It’s like I need a visual representation of wilting.

Read More
PEDUNCLES (Poem)
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

PEDUNCLES (Poem)

Static fills my right hip, crrrrsppppp crrrrsppppp!

Begging for a kiss, a loosening.

Despite her shallow roots, my Hoya Hindu rope

has grown peduncles—

Read More
YOU CHOOSE (Poem)
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

YOU CHOOSE (Poem)

I rudely request, require and desire a refrain from chronic pain

because this belligerent, bony, buss-down bundles to her buttcheeks b*tch

is insane, bringing broken bridges and invisible incisions,

Read More
GENETIC (Poem)
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

GENETIC (Poem)

i know how you work, i know just who you are,

a leech tryna suck the glow up out of me.

don’t you know it’s genetic,

Read More
THE SQUATTER
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

THE SQUATTER

A squatter lives in my shoulders

she tore down the drywall

and built boulders,

armor for words of judgement to pierce less

Read More
THE HAUNTING
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

THE HAUNTING

That feeling of foreigners invading my temple

hunts me.

I am hunted by emptiness behind the detectives’ eyes.

I am hunted by the ugly yellow linoleum floors

Read More
PILLOW
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

PILLOW

I desired to be pillow, soft and unassuming.

Nobody hates pillows.

If I could stuff my tummy with white feathers,

there’d be enough cushion, enough down

Read More
DREAMERHEAD
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

DREAMERHEAD

Bald head, chemo girl ain’t had no hair to curl

threw up, grew up, I just bout glew up

Needed to stop the inner control freak

Stopped drumming for a while, let God control the beat.

Read More
MS. WORLD
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

MS. WORLD

I actually thought I had to earn love—

keep my brows arched and teeth white,

suck my lips too thin for fear that they’d be

too big, too Black for you.

Read More
FOR THE SURVIVORS
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

FOR THE SURVIVORS

Forget the men who saw buds on your chest and declared them breasts.

Forget the rain showers and the smell of hot guilt rising from pavement.

Forget the new moons in the sky, the clouded nights of hidden stars.

Read More
RHYME TIME
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

RHYME TIME

Light skin, brown skin, dark skin, caramel—

definitions of skin tone live in a tin of sin

akin to a pin pulled from a hand grenade.

Read More
NO WOMAN
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

NO WOMAN

“No Woman, No Cry” personified,

Black woman with the thickest hide,

skin slick to slip off insults and pride.

Read More
SWEET SIXTEEN
Poetry Farah Lawal Harris Poetry Farah Lawal Harris

SWEET SIXTEEN

My trauma think she grown, but she ain’t.

Sweet sixteen she’ll be this year—

a child who is heard, but not seen

she whispers through grinded teeth and creaky knees…

Read More