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Compensation
If He-Man had
been raised
by a single mother,
there might’ve been times
when she’d catch him
holding his hands as if to protect
a freshly painted set of fingernails
or pursing his lips tight enough to spit
while he’d sass her, I mean, one hand
on the hip opposite his sheath sass her.
I know about her vow
to be more like a man for him,
how it was then that she decided
his would be the mightiest sword.
Phenomenon:
Little Black Girls in Circles
Ask them what
color they really are
and they’ll all know to turn
to the undersides of their arms
where the sun misses them
most,
to offer one another the traceable
lines
from elbow to wrist where their darkness
subsides
in even waves, giving way to their lightest
skin.
They’ll become fingertips tickling boundaries,
like gods who stroke the sand to make the shore.
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Jonterri
Gadson is Debra’s daughter. She is also
currently a first-year poetry fellow in the
Masters in Fine Arts Program for Creative
Writing at the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville. She received her Bachelor of
Arts in English from Florida International
University where she was mentored by Denise
Duhamel. Her work has previously appeared or is
forthcoming in Conte, Diverse Voices Quarterly,
and Assisi.