Christina Springer

Christina Springer is a text artist who uses poetry, dance, theatre, film and other visual expressions.  Recent dance-theatre scripts include: "Living Ancestry" and "Kikombe Cha Umoja: A Kwanzaa Myth" produced by Umoja African Arts Company and "The Splooge Factory" produced by Composer's Collaborative.   Poems have appeared in: "Gathering Ground: A Cave Canem Reader," "Saints Of Hysteria," "The Complete Idiots Guide To Slam Poetry CD," Janus Head, Femspec, and Callaloo.  Asan Outreach Artist for the Historic Royal Palaces, she has delivered  four projects with youth: "Rapping On Walls," "Black Birds & Bars," "Bling & Beheadings"  at the Tower Of London and "Dragon Drap D'Or" at Hampton Court Palace.  She has also taught creative writing at CityLit College and The University Of East London. She is a Cave Canem fellow.

his open palm
closed. arm

thrust.
let go that

crepe paper sand
forced solid like the shocking weight
when young hands first
help a hard wrinkled woman toilet;

pock marked cringing
witness sent to crush
a bound bow back
teenage adulteress in black;

soft fear like a firstborn
cradling the sibling’s
wobbling head;

ridged barnacle valley chanting
some sacred mysterious ditty

sun hot black weight stinging

fortune’s lines.
released

the ocean’s song,
the secrets in stone.

Infant   In   Burka

I think it begins with a wild
picture of ourselves

in the long ago of
once upon a time memory

unfettered innocence
winnowed

                                  sharpened

to guarded blades.
then dark,

billowing armour.

we all give our best
weapons to our children.

rummage about for what is
expedient.                tools

we understand.
desire and repulsion.

hold dear this precious
hard won wisdom.

our chicks line up.
soft down and

satiating juicy fat.
the hunter sights.

we hear him behind every bush.
we never let him shoot.

These   Beautiful   Beasts

          sharp heeled professional women kick
          toddlers out of the way for a chicken packet.
red December roses
          glaring old grannies suck
          teeth when children laugh.
orange begonias, thick
          bus drivers slam doors. race
          for next stop. small legs take too long.
fuchsia bushes dangling

purple pink bells. no signs
          count down shopping
          days to Christmas. end
at 3:30. i understand
          a nation of beasts tend
          gardens, clutch the last fragile
petals in sleek claws,
          wish a child could
          save them.