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Anastacia Tolbert


Anastacia (Stacey) Tolbert is a writer, Cave Canem Fellow (2007), journalist, workshop facilitator and playwright living in Seattle Washington. She is author of the poetry book, Baring My Soul, and the recipient of the 2004 San Diego Journalism Press Club Award for the article “War Torn.” Tolbert is a Seattle Arts and Lectures Writer-in-Resident, Writers in the Schools (WITS), and the Hugo House Youth Site Manage. She is writer, co-director, and co-producer of GOTBREAST? Documentary (2007): a documentary about the views of women regarding breast and body image. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have been published in, Clamor Magazine, Check the Rhyme, An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees (Nominated for the 2007 NAACP Award), I Woke Up and Put My Crown On: 76 Voices of African American Women, Essence Magazine, Number One Magazine, The Nubian Chronicles, San Diego City Beat, The Pitch Weekly, Hair Piecez Anthology and The Source Magazine.


The People Poems: Sister Simmons

 
Discarded her Saturday red panties
burned her margarita recipe, literary erotica, secular music
buys clear nail polish               only
rises early on Sunday’s                       loves her white church hat
                                                            matching Sunday shoes
facilitates children’s church
breaks into hymn
                                                            often
                                                            reads her bible
                                                            never uses the Lord’s name in vain
loves her neighbor
but not his wife                                    prays for forgiveness

 
           
The People Poems: Carter
 
Fierceness                  about Him
plays with the other children
magic in His teeth
never doubts Himself
crushed on by prepubescent girls
 
“Ain’t no worse off then no one else.”
 
bounces the ball, passes it, master of the court
rolls with the cool boys
shines His wheel chair daily.

 
 

The People Poems: “Baby Girl” and “Little Man”

 
Through the glass
past the kitchen
down the hall
                        mutual
under
age
sex
rapid
thrusting
17
                        overwhelmed
biting lips
adolescent moans
 
“Wait, do you hear someone coming’?”
 
football gear
and college applications
hello kitty purse
and birth control pills
                        nestled between
poverty line and $100 dollar shoes
starved for attention
feeding on the possibility
of after prom glow.

 

 

 

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