Last month, in honor of World's Poetry Day, writer and curator, Mahogany L. Browne, shared an introspective poem for us all to enjoy. This month, Browne returns to gift us with a new poem. Please enjoy the following poem from poet, Mahogany L. Browne, entitled: Onion and Celery. 

Photo: Mahogany L. Browne

Onion and Celery by Mahogany L. Browne

before my grandma bit back

the spittle

to tell my grandpa about hisself

her hands dishwater worn

& clasped in her lap

her hands swinging a spatula

her hands wielding her good cutting knife

the onion & celery is a gracious marriage

living on the chopping block

before there was a before this moment

I coerced my knuckles into the skyline

& left the radiator hissing

when I see red

I am my father

I believe in nothing but god

& the way I hold my liquor

here is when I smile most like my mother

sitting on a rickety porch

with a tumbler of something numbing

my throbbing hands

I want to heal the heat beneath my ribcage

I think of the before

& the spittle

& the man that carried me to the threshold

between my true self & almost me

the only love of your life is you, I sip

& wait for the rum turned truth serum

to move me far from his ungodly reach

far from the pot steaming over an open fire

a pair of swollen hands

kneeling to no one in particular.


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