Long Complexions Poems

I Have Labored Sore
anonymous medieval lyric (circa the fifteenth century)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I have labored sore / and suffered death, 
so now I rest / and catch my breath.
But I shall come /...

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5 minutes 

Black man- Regular Font
White cop- ALL CAPS 

Excuse me Mr. Officer can i ask you a question
WHAT THE HELL YOU WANT BOY YOU ARE GETTING OUT OF YOUR PROTEST SECTION
Why do you hate...

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Sympathetic purpled eyed Suzan                               ...

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Beauty is an acute perception, of universal cosmeticsIs it an innie, outie or maybe a meanie?            Could we find beauty, if she or he...

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Open the book of history chapter 19
Allow your shadow to roam on its surface, turn to verses twenty and 
wait. trace your finger forward, keep going; then Stop! Do you see that word corruption marked...

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Friends and foes of flesh and bone from me they have flown 
A different company I keep in reveries of twilight sleep
When night’s dark blanket does fall, I begin to hear their call
Carriage wheels creak,...

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1/16/23


Still rejected
I already did mention
Much is in question
In the end most won't get the message
I'm tired of all this tension
Too much focus on others skin complexions
Never once has this path been effective
Do such fools need...

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If I Tell You, 2011
Vickie M. Ortiz Vazquez

If I tell you, Puerto Rican I am
What comes to mind?
Morena of “el barrio” or Blonde woman of “el barrio”
Better yet, pale skin-blonde from up north
That one, the...

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In our Asian-cum-Eastern land
No one prefers or admires
the dark-skinned or tanned

Gosh, as if the fair-skinned alone
belonged to the so-called fairer sex
And here, 'black is beauty' a phrase unheard
All falling for the light skinned almost in...

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Mighty flowers shake above the quake
Children run for cover under clouds of ash
Burnt down houses driven off by lava flow
The volcano makes a path
That other world we know

Sometimes survival is based on luck
Lightning bolts hardly...

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OLD TOWN ELEGY
  
The bridge still spans the road - with what design?
The rail that once crossed Ridgeway and vale to the sea
Erased and gone, with scarce residual sign
And barely more trace than near...

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Like many poets before, I have tried all which-way
not to measure love – not to price love~
Like a post office puts sentiment to a ruler

meters jewelry purchased, already with the
weight of grief -- a romantically...

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BLACK BEAUTY

Beauty is said to be in the eyes of the beholder,
But why do I need to wait to be “beholden”?
For those of us who are bolder, and know better,
Whose skin tones and body types...

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We are complexions of being,
gradations of actualization.
Our nature coming to be or passing away, 
Aristotle wrote. 

Mere complexions of being,
gradations of ontology.
In every American thing we claim to know,
Pigment is the currency,
Our petty underlying divisor,
Our...

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Gaping open raw war exhales vapors 
In the frigid gray stillness excavating
My souls for the unseen harvest
Reflected in the leaves desiccating

Through walls of fogs pale faces stare
And disappear like a random shiver
Like a slick violin...

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Fair is a word tossed between us,
quick breaths across wet teeth—
a fleeting agreement that nothing ever is,
except for our burning complexions
beneath the relentless, arid graze of summer sun.
The skin engaged in a heated debate.

But that...

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10/8/22

Never mind
There is no better time
One way to find out if I'll ever find
What's on the separate side

It took more than seven tries
To get it right, after eleven nights
In the midst of a hectic life
While...

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The calendar counts the weeks and months of COVID.
Yet, every pensive daybreak I am granted that for which I never asked.
Of course, suffering sickness and death tolls are endlessly morbid.
Still, my morning strolls find dazzling...

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Masked maiden
In lacy black frills
Manacled, chained
Sensuous thrills
 
Birthday suit bare
Heavenly toned
Sweetened and ripe
In wanting groan
 
With her laced black fan
She lures with her scent
He slowly walks to her
As her eyes lament
 
She looks up to...

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One Love  
By Rebecca Dominique Morris 

What’s the difference between you and me 
Why can’t we be who we were  meant to be 
Is it because your black and I’m white? 
Because your...

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Masked maiden
In lacy black frills
Manacled, chained
Sensuous thrills
 
Birthday suit bare
Heavenly toned
Sweetened and ripe
In wanting groan
 
With her laced black fan
She lures with her scent
He slowly walks to her
As her eyes lament
 
She looks up to...

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I stood wandering your complexions
As you stood wandering mine;
Following signs,
We got enshrined;
Our minds connected,
Our bodies intertwined,
To each other, each heart reclined,
Souls touching,
We were entwined...

Even so, through difficulties
I noticed you were uncompromising;
I thought we were aligned.
Now,...

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Colorful or Chimera Words - UPDATE Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Constance La France
Placed 2nd
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Diversity brings excitement to life, the saying goes…
Hence, diverse colors on earth our nature bestows…
Amid sunrises and sunsets when the sky is clear,
Brilliant...

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Tenebrous night steals autumn days,
Invading ink subtracts the breath of light,
With tarnished mingling edge,
With dusty dusk’s laments.

Tenebrous night of immutable grave,
Infiltrating melanin loots the golden glow,
Where criminal and crucifix sink,
Where dream and delirium drown.

We are...

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* For Jessica Alba ... and the splendor of her smile. *


Oh, the enigma of her face ...
    Its melting mysteries and moody veneers
     When sad, like a...

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