Issue #134 Two Poems from Village

Two Poems from Village

LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs

Apt 5FE. Photo: LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs. 

Issue #134
March 2023

natasha is going to kill boris

 

 

caterpillars & grief :: the screech of some forty girls masking the seer’s

anguish :: future masquerades toward the La Marqueta on Park Ave.

on thin webs, the larva break, free fall :: minor safety inside a training

bra or sweat-weathered feathered mushrooms to accidently pupate

welp :: the squeals of puberty lend to their massacre :: splat ::

aquamarine protein erupts out negro red fuzz :: ectoplasm

:: a boy’s savagery plays out on the bottom of his k-swiss :: hulk smash

they transfer that massacre

to the streets of Harlem :: split

—crack skull :: rip :: puny gods

these rites make right boys to men some safer passage :: suffer

the black common law widows

 

digress :: journey to the bottom

of Bear Mountain Park’s tidal pool :: between wormholes

a girl is dancing w/ her eyes closed beneath mechanical surf

which way is up :: distancing downward :: is there any ooze

that might ignite another reactionary freeze?

cybernetic tidal waves are criminal

the arms untrained

paddle in wrong directions

a hand reaches out :: fumbles to grab

pulls her up :: & out

“sun’s getting real low, sun’s going down.”

never again :: if ever a man did

where is the bastard hatchling’s sargassum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

inventor of the penis pants

 

this drinking partner :: this drinking buddy :: her buddy :: his chum

her nutter butter :: he crave you like you Little Debbie :: a good nut

buddies keen on tickling the thighs ::

but not green teats.

 

ride the 2 to the Bronx :: family outings :: weekends :: 176th

a footbridge over highway

arrival to his & her home :: the live-in buddy

is sloppy :: is stunted :: is never lucid :: is little difference

to ma duke :: enabler eager on liquor

a common flux of food stamps a liquor store will trade for

& weekly we arrive.

 

call him uncle :: as all good buddies are uncles & aunties

call him Bill :: when she ascertains Eldridge :: or is it the other way

around :: flip pages :: what smears too much this uncle favors

books needing to cancel

this Eldridge she read up on :: but this Eldridge favors Bill :: buddy’s

partner’s bottom lip drools like the parent’s bottom lip drools :: snore

adhere to dust mites :: a composite sketch is drawn of the jockey cup

or the Fruit of Loom briefs :: always that one who played the grapes

redrawn :: about the relief in his eyes :: flare of the snout

restaged :: attempting  :: i am :: refinishing this furniture :: alter the face

sake of not revoking my race card :: she thought whiteness

:: flashes flicker

she see cotton

 

crop :: this would be a loving image :: a mother sleeping

w/ her two daughters. :: above a headboard :: distorted by a picture

of Christ :: on top a tartan couch. :: window veering the Western sunset

uncorrected :: a bed & sheets itchy to which a buddy snuggles in

a finger inside what is nine or ten

a maneuver he perfects

each outing :: to reach over gut swollen from porkchop & fibroid

to not disturb what’s straight disturbing :: window guards do not protect

 

instead entrap & corral

the revolutionary becomes a Mormon :: the said uncle fondles

swaps baby for mommy :: flinch free :: freed from a fig leaf ::

unbound :: unstrapped

 

 

 

on the 2 back home :: between train cars :: a mother

vomits her liver :: window guard three stops behind them  ::

that sensation stirring :: stirring :: what is she feeling

is long fin

doe

oh dear

the buddy fingers’ slick shimmer

of juice :: two peas in the pod

 

the fault of DNA across waters

& colonies

NYCHA or rent control :: courtyards & window guards

a flash :: is not our fault :: you think us THOTS

 

she reaches for a twelve pack of Nutty Buddy at Target

the book closes :: see

the problem w/ including photos

 

Subject
Poetry
Return to Issue #134

These works are used by permission from Village (Coffee House Press, 2023). Copyright © 2023 by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs.

A writer, vocalist and performance/sound artist, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is the author of TwERK (Belladonna, 2013). Diggs has presented and performed at California Institute of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, The Museum of Modern Art, and Walker Art Center and at festivals including: Explore the North Festival, Leeuwarden, Netherlands; Hekayeh Festival, Abu Dhabi; International Poetry Festival of Copenhagen; Ocean Space, Venice; International Poetry Festival of Romania; Question of Will, Slovakia; Poesiefestival, Berlin; and the 2015 Venice Biennale. As an independent curator, artistic director, and producer, Diggs has presented events for BAMCafé, Black Rock Coalition, El Museo del Barrio, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and the David Rubenstein Atrium. Diggs has received a 2020 George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 C.D. Wright Award for Poetry from the Foundation of Contemporary Art, a Whiting Award (2016) and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship (2015), as well as grants and fellowships from Cave Canem, Creative Capital, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, among others. She lives in Harlem and teaches part-time at Brooklyn College and Stetson University.

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