Heart Of A Little Brown Girl//Quiet

we
dangle

limbs over each other
like rag dolls
seeking puppet strings

teach us to move

easy
We are
how natural

How quiet my breathing

How limbs
Have taken millennia to form
Even before

we were seeds
in bellies
my fingers knew
to trace your collar bone
The raise
of your stomach

How we have been etched
out of Cypress trees
The humble shake of their limbs
the musk of bark
Still clinging

we puppeteer these bodies
strings tied to the heavens

In the movement of clouds
We kiss the rays
filtering halo onto
our golden skin
grown green
under time’s
calloused fingertips

You floating
in zero gravity
whisper

“goodnight”

It’s the only thing I will ever hear

By Autumn Smith

Biography:

 A Cleveland bred poet, Autumn focused on the rhythm and conveying her ideas through image and senses in her poems. Originally a spoken word poet, she participated in the Brave New Voices competition in 2011, ran a spoken word club and poetry workshops throughout college, and is now a contributing editor for Barnhouse Journal. Through exploration of race, mental illness, and humanity, she delves deeper into her own existence. Her main inspirations are Andrea Gibson, Anis Mojgani, and Naomi Shihad Nye