Mantis 19 (Spring 2021)
2020: Protest

Back to Contents

Joanne Godley

Scary Hair

Monica against the chair back sits with back straight.
Together hands knees folded and pressed
Sits.
Matching her smart legs and pump colored leg socks
Every blue suit in the building
Blends with her. Her lowkey makeup is the tiny jewel on her shiny neck
Her neck and wrist.
and one might be tempted to over-look this-
Her Angela Davis hair.
The year is 2020 so modern the time.
Watch.
Monica’s natural locks stick this way and that.
Hair refuses to smile or behave
Be quiet. Comply.
Angry head of locks verge on the wilderness
Verge loud without saying a word or
A word.
No control no hold back no hold in
Like slaves who broke
Their bondage and ran and ran
The person-self of Black hair
Thinks is angry and nasty.
Fears Black hair has its own mind. It's autonomy.
Ponders if hair strands lust to be free.
Hair stirs up change
Do not t ouch
Do not t ouch
Do not t ouch.
At every Black moment.
Worries willful wild ill tamed.
Like wool. Sweet wool.
Nappy yes nappy.  

‘Bloody’ Tears

My Rage pours out of my eyes

I’ve been a wailing wreck

I am so done with police murders and lies

Since they sat on George Floyd’s neck

My Wrath erupts from my eyes

If I’m weeping, it’s not that I’m sad

I’ve seen too many videos in which Black men die

On the contrary, I’m just mad

My Anger streams from my eyes

I hate the pigs, proud boys and the klan

One microaggression more and my patience will fly

Against Karen, Mr. Charley and Miss Anne

My Fury gushes from my eyes

Now, ire seeps from my pores

Saying BLACK LIVES MATTER hasn’t laid racism to rest

I’m angry as hell and, who can I tell?

My Anguish runs out of my eyes

JOANNE GODLEY is a physician, bioethicist, writer, and poet. Her nonfiction has appeared in the Kenyon Review Online and The Massachusetts Review, her flash fiction has appeared in the Akashic press blog series Mondays are Murder, and her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Bellevue Literary Review, The Poeming Pigeon, The Poetry Distillery's 2020 anthology and elsewhere. Her poetry chapbook, Picking Scabs from the Body History, was released in July, 2020 and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.