Unreasonable Hope

It will whisper in the wind
and ask of you the unreasonable:
Can you break down that Jericho wall
that guards your heart—
the one you built with the debris of
unkept promises and broken dreams?

Will you rend
that blanket of false security—
that tattered, threadbare thing
you stitched together with skeins of lies
and distractions that now
reeks with the musk of fear?

It will crook its finger and beckon,
asking you to believe the impossible:
that anything is possible,
and that you can chase away the darkness
with a mere pinprick of light.

You know it’s not easy to let hope in.
Easy is to accept things as they are,
easier still to expect the worst.
But hope expects you to work.

It gives you its infinitesimal spark
and requires you to tend it,
add kindling and
gently fan that first tender, orange flame
until a fire roars.

Then it will gently touch your shoulder
and ask you again:
Will you reach out your hands—
let the heat warm the cold fingers of
the hands you’ve been wringing in despair,
let feeling come back into your body
until, cell by cell, you feel alive again?

And with the lifeblood pumping through your veins,
the spark now aglow in your eyes,
will you dare to try one more time?

Say Hello to Alayo Issue 3 – The Winter Edition

This one took some doing, but we got ‘er done and she is glorious!

Keep hope alive, y’all!

Last year took a lot from us—loved ones, jobs, opportunities, freedom of movement, peace of mind, and the list goes on. By the time we got to December, we were looking forward to the new year with an almost desperate hope, pleading for 2021 to be better.

We know there’s no magic wand to make all the challenges disappear, but there’s indeed something kind of magical about the turn of the year—maybe it’s the energy of billions of people collectively putting their hopes and dreams out into the atmosphere. It’s inspiring and challenges us to dare for more, no matter how the previous year turned out. It’s that excitement of expectancy that led me to focus on HOPE for issue no. 3 of Alayo magazine, which was published at the end of January.

Take a look inside and see how some of my readers held on to hope in the middle of a chaotic year and how they plan to keep looking forward despite the challenges 2021 has already thrown our way.

Circumlocution

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I don’t write because I am afraid.
I am afraid of my words.
I am afraid to search for my words,
of what I’ll find when I plumb
the depths of my feelings to unearth them.
I am afraid of turning on the spigot and having them rush out
—or trickle.
Or worse, there is not a single drop
because the works have rusted from lack of use.

I am afraid of my voice
because the silence in which I suffer
has become my brittle chrysalis
and making any sound might cause it to shatter.
I am not quite ready or able to be a butterfly.

I am afraid of cutting myself open,
my blood the ink on the page
from wounds that won’t heal
because I’m afraid to tend to them, too.

I am afraid.
Of standing naked before myself
and picking myself apart
letter by letter
until I am just bones.

But sometimes a word claws its way out of my belly
and plops upon the page.
I look at this strange thing
that came out of me and it’s ugly and misshapen
but also, somehow, beautiful.

I am so afraid.
But fear is a casket
and I am not yet dead.

So I will go in search of them,
those elusive words that are sometimes
at the tip of my pen and tongue.
I will write myself into my own life’s story
letter by letter
even on crumpled pages
until I am whole.

I Made A Magazine!

I’m not even going to hitch: I’m proud to present to you the first issue of Alayo magazine.

Isn’t she gorgeous? Twenty whole pages of joy rightchea!

It’s often been said that when life throws you lemons, instead of being bitter, you should use them to make lemonade. Beyonce has a whole album about it too, so there ya go!

Continue reading “I Made A Magazine!”

Miss Rena In Memoriam

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

If you’ve spent any time around me, you ‘know’ my Miss Rena. I probably talk about her at least once a day, on average. She definitely crosses my mind at least once every day. Born Ena Mae Attride on this day in 1927, she was my grandmother by virtue of being the woman who raised my mother. She was a small, feisty, half-Cuban former floor show dancer who would not hesitate to tell you about yourself, especially if you dared cross her or trouble her own. Think Madea, minus the gun and getaway car. In her younger days, she probably would have fought you, too. She often shared the story of how she was expelled from secondary school (I think it was Convent of Mercy) because she hit one of the Sisters after being caned.

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22 Books I Want to Read, Re-read or Finish Reading in 2020

Teeheehee! 😂

Dr. Terri-Karelle Reid—awesome supermom, media personality, speaker, host and all around G—recently sparked a one-woman reading revolution by sharing on Instagram that she read 45 books in 2019. Many people were shocked because that’s close to a book a week and how does she find the time when she’s, like, the definition of busy? If you’re familiar with Terri-Karrelle and have that question yourself, check out her blog post where she breaks it all down. 

As an unabashed #wordnerd myself, I also spent 2019 buried in books—more than 100 by my guess, but whereas Terri-Karelle’s reading list is chock full of great books that can teach you something or help you grow as a person, mine was…not so much.

Continue reading “22 Books I Want to Read, Re-read or Finish Reading in 2020”

All The Black Girl Magic At US Open 2019 Has Me Super Emo About Venus and Serena Williams And Their Legacy

True pioneers and queens

I can’t remember the first time I saw either of them on my television screen, Venus and Serena Williams, but I do remember watching a few of their matches back in their early days. I’m the least athletic person in the world, but I’m a deeply experienced spectator of several sports, so yes, I watched tennis matches when JBC or whatever the station was called back in the 90s used to show the grand slams. (I was a huge fan of Steffi Graf and Pete Sampras is bae to this day.) So I don’t know how I can’t recall their majors debuts, these two black girls just showing up when I’d never seen a black person in this sport before, let alone two. But I do remember seeing pictures and clips of them in action, beaded canerows flying. I remember there were braces involved at a certain point, too. I remember being shocked that black people played tennis. I was too young to know the significance of them existing in this space, but I would come to learn.

Continue reading “All The Black Girl Magic At US Open 2019 Has Me Super Emo About Venus and Serena Williams And Their Legacy”

Graduation – A Short Story

It’s been ages since I shared anything here and since BlueHost is still collecting my coins for hosting and whatnot, I figured I should stop wasting the real estate. So here goes. This is Graduation, a piece loosely inspired by true events. It’s the first story I wrote that I let anyone see since my epic teen novel instalments in 2nd form and I wrote it in 2009, more than a decade after I’d stopped writing for fun. I was rusty and being the self-judgey writer that I am, I’m sure it showed, but it still copped a silver medal in the JCDC Creative Writing Competition, so we thank God! Anyhoodle, I felt like sharing, so I hope you enjoy!

Continue reading “Graduation – A Short Story”