{"id":1973,"date":"2021-09-10T19:24:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T19:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=1973"},"modified":"2021-09-24T22:20:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T22:20:54","slug":"1973-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/volume-2-fall-2021\/1973-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Crystal Joseph<\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

africa(n) america(n)<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

how do you ache for a land that you have never lived in<\/p>\n

never felt it squirm between your ribs<\/p>\n

or have its air inflate your lungs<\/p>\n

never touched the soil and had it<\/p>\n

lodge underneath your fingernails<\/p>\n

how do you mourn for something that<\/p>\n

you have never held in your heart –<\/p>\n

an ownership that exists in free papers<\/p>\n

and dreams that bubble up from<\/p>\n

the bottom of the atlantic ocean<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

The Ship\u2019s Inventory<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

consists of:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

100,000 broken brown bodies<\/p>\n

10,000 prayers to the ocean<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002begging to be swallowed<\/p>\n

1,000 souls diving to their demise<\/p>\n

100 drunk white men swinging<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002from the starboard<\/p>\n

10 weeks aboard a mass grave<\/p>\n

1 retelling of history<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

island fog<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

these cobalt pools that turned clear in my hands<\/p>\n

\u00ad\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002deemed this place a paradise<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002\u2002a heaven on earth, where foreigners run to<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002\u2002release their heartaches and forget<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i cannot forget because my heartaches live here<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

nestled among the palm trees are dreams that<\/p>\n

\u00ad\u2002\u2002never got to grow to their fullest height<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002so that they too could sweep the clouds<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002instead they are mangled stumps<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it never mattered how hot the sun was,<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002it was never enough to warm my father\u2019s eyes<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002this monstrous sun beat down on our backs<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002until our unprotected skin began to peel<\/p>\n

showing our coral coloured flesh<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

but this was paradise and we could all pretend to forget<\/p>\n

\u2002\u2002while our scabs turned into scars<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

biography in Black<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

say atatiana jefferson pamela turner korryn gaines yvette smith miriam carey skelley frey darnisha harris malissa williams shantel davis rekia boyd aiyana stanley-jones tarika wilson kathryn johnston kendra james tyisha miller india kager natasha mckenna tanisha anderson aura rosser alesia thomas sharmel edwards shereese francis alberta spruill michelle cusseaux margaret mitchell kayla moore danetter daniels charleena chavon alexia christian mya hall meagan hockaday sheneque proctor pearlie golden gabriella nevarez sandra bland breonna taylor<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

if you made it this far then congratulations on surviving.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Crystal Joseph<\/strong> grew up in the sister island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, located in the Caribbean. She graduated from Rutgers University with a major in English and minor in Creative Writing. During her senior year, Crystal completed a Creative Writing Honors Thesis where she explored generational trauma as a result of slavery within different branches of the African Diaspora. She focused mainly on the Black experience within the United States as well as Post Colonial thought within the Caribbean. Crystal was the recipient for the 2020 Mitchell Adelman Award in Poetry and the 2021 Julia Carlie Memorial Prize in Poetry. She was named a Henry Rutgers Scholar and Paul Robeson Scholar and also received High Honors for her thesis. She plans to continue writing and hopes to have her first poetry collection published in the coming years. One day she hopes to return to Antigua & Barbuda and start a Non Profit Organization that focuses on expanding literacy and creativity within the island\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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