Tag: Monica A. Hand

by Monica A. Hand

…I hear women screaming in the night

—Ekere Tallie

…for others to see you, is a form of validation…

“I you see you, therefore you exist.”

—Mickalene Thomas

Ekere, that’s me in the mirror

Mickalene, that’s me lying on your sofa

cuddled in nakedness

That’s me at Carnival

Day of the Dead parade painted in white

face a contorted scream

That’s me: Noh dancer

man as a woman

virgin on the Cross mistaken for Jesus

from DiVidaFind more by Monica A. Hand at the library

Copyright © 2018 Monica A. Hand
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of

by Monica A. Hand

My mother used to muse she was a slave to passion

she liked fornication

liked it a lot

it helped rebuke

disappointments on her timeline

the other women in our walk-up

called her Jezebel

but not to her face

because she’d cut their pretty little derrières

rearrange their bodies with her devil’s tongue

not because I was pitch blue-black like the gemstone

not even because she wanted me hard & unyielding

she named me after Sapphire Stevens from The Amos ‘n’ Andy show

I was never going to take it lying down

Sapphire is not the name of a slave

You could be as sweet as Weezy on The Jeffersons

My mother used to say it didn’t matter anyway

if you was a strong black woman who stood her ground

they was going to find another name for you

like Esther

Florida

Florence

Maxine

Michelle

from DiVidaFind more by Monica A. Hand at the library

Copyright © 2018 Monica A. Hand
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.

by Monica A. Hand

cotton slacks shirts with stripes

lavender ties popular in spring

hip chains for keys padded thigh seams

she stands in the women’s

line prefers the smell of a woman’s

almond shaped unwashed sex a woman’s

water; but today she gets ejected

for looking like a man; ejected

for absent-mindedly grabbing her crotch; ejected

for acting like a man

even when Sapphire hisses: She ain’t no man

she just likes to dress like man

they demand that DiVida leave

who screams: You can’t ask me to leave

cause I’m not feminine I won’t leave

if you please

I will use the ladies room please

this is my gender identification please

even if I look like a man

from DiVidaFind more by Monica A. Hand at the library

Copyright © 2018 Monica A. Hand
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.

by Monica A. Hand

Eats beans

Sleeps on the sofa

Homeschools her progeny

Stuffs cardboard in her shoes

Washes her underwear in the sink

Grows tomatoes and cucumbers on windowsills

Spends her pension on travel to and from alternative universes

The President interrupts her favorite TV show with talk:

We will invest in medical research.

We will invest in clean energy.

We will invest in job training.

We will invest in education.

The rich don’t need another tax cut–not if it means seniors can’t eat.

Sapphire mimics: million, billion, trillion—say it fast bet you choke on

your own spit

I only got two dollars in my wallet

I can’t afford the American dream

Pass the joint and put some ice in my Hennessy

from DiVidaFind more by Monica A. Hand at the library

Copyright © 2018 Monica A. Hand
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.

by Monica A. Hand

They want to see her

residency status

all she has is my passport

my picture

my place of birth

my expiration date

she tries to explain she is I

tells them

she is your try to do right

walk right talk right she

walk the straight line obey

she

never get stopped by the police

she

when they look at her in disbelief she tells them

she is Skip Gates and this is her house I

wouldn’t have been so nice and stagehand about it

I’d be, What the Frankenstein?

they’d wish they

had kept on going with their blinking lights

she wants to tell them

this ain’t South Africa it’s the USA she doesn’t want nobody

to (fill in the blanks)

she knows I don’t have any time for backroads logic

I’m sorry, Officers, I say, I forgot my ID.

from DiVidaFind more by Monica A. Hand at the library

Copyright © 2018 Monica A. Hand
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.