Black Magic
Girl, the masses called her
High
Priestess
of Soul, in an interview she air
quoted cuz her world isn’t limited
even when flung from it
by labels or to go as far
to say
language as a whole , I’m talkin’
‘bout Nina
you know Simone, bless her invested soul
other worldly, always living in more than on and yet
10X more experienced in her 3D body, never a concern for the material
meaning, language is limited
she means
well, she would’ve liked to go home
walk the streets she performs for
and not be robbed, be laughed at later
for explaining the lack of change
be paid for her lip
service, an equal split
check her back & have a hand on it
what year is it and equality is still
a thing of the past, present, & future tense fist, she was tender in every circumstance except for song, there’s no time
to sugar
coat
talent comes with conditions
period dot
dot dot she never signed up for
a life of misunderstandings, she wanted
her name,
stage to call her
own like a kid possesses stuff-
ed animals & everything they can
hug, doesn’t every woman in this industry? The rigid masters degree of backlash it takes
to achieve like attending a real university
black magic vanishes
if the voice box is suffocated, isn’t that right, Nina? Rise if it’s true plants will droop, elevate ‘n
die depending on
the music played
around them. i watch
what I play in public, but nature
urges me to pay attention to frequencies
in private too, I’d whisper
if it’s facts to my hand-
glued crystal Tillandsias in my mint
-green room, but none got through
the thick of Michigan
winters. Rose
quartz is pretty to pinch and admire,
but let’s face it, the color is what we all
grab her for like an object, no power in that
movement, ask our former orange-flesh
President of U.S via his twitter
handle, what he finds pleasure in
grabbing, the colors he can’t see
working It’s magic
on the human race
no situation is purely black & certainly
not white, this race lives in their pink
matter too much
who said
a black heart couldn’t mend
a strung out time-
line, who said time
matters at all when art is
a perpetual
necessity, people
pick up poetry like
Nina
wasn’t playing lyrics, wasn’t playing
was she? No, she was
living the times on key.
Always on key. Black & white.
by Maria