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Forced Entry
By Ekere Tallie He broke into me
stole something
a brazen thief
never charged with forced entry
because "Please don't" didn't lead
to blue black marks on the lock
and no one sees the bruise prints
the scratch marks on my spirit
these don't make police reports
the dignity missing from my step
doesn't qualify as physical evidence
I shake when I see him
only my homegirls seem to notice
their golden light, protective around me
his boys' mantra is "lying bitch"
they mutter it with sharp machete eyes,
occasionally someone rouses himself to say it-
"Lying bitch"
the words weigh down the wings of airborne birds
and for the first time
I see these men not as men
but as terrorists in training
camouflaged bombers on
the ground floor of truth
taking dynamite to its foundation.
I see myself as a prisoner of war
an exile
a survivor
I wish this wasn't my story
but it is
a million times over
and just when I think it has gone away
it reappears at my doorstep
in another woman's face
or on the ten o'clock news
and although I have loved men since
maybe another sister can't
so this is our story
and it will be ours
until we don't have to claim it anymore
until women from Brooklyn to Oakland to South Africa
can sit back in amazement and say
"I can't believe such things ever occurred,"
until the word "rape"
can be wiped out from vocabularies
removed from the dictionary
stamped out of our memories
until then, this will be our story
and wounded eyes will tell it
even when we don't
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Karma’s Footsteps
By Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie
Somebody has to tell the truth sometime, whatever that truth may be. In this, her début full collection, Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie offers up a body of work that bears its scars proudly, firm in the knowledge that each is evidence of a wound survived. These are songs of life in all its violent difficulty and beauty; songs of fury, songs of love. 'Karma's Footsteps' brims with things that must be said and turns the volume up, loud, giving silence its last rites. "Ekere Tallie's new work 'Karma's Footsteps' is as fierce with fight songs as it is with love songs. Searing with truths from the modern day world she is unafraid of the twelve foot waves that such honesties always manifest. A poet who "refuses to tiptoe" she enters and exits the page sometimes with short concise imagery, sometimes in the arms of delicate memoir. Her words pull the forgotten among us back into the lightning of our eyes.—Nikky Finney /
Ekere Tallie Table /
I Leave My Colors Everywhere
ChickenBones Black Arts and Black Power Figures (Compiled by Rudolph Lewis) |
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"Love is a story that we never stop telling"
Veronique Tadjo
http://www.ekeretallie.com
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"More than a guide to a holistic, healthy pregnancy;
it's a confessional, a warning, and a roadmap for
navigating the rewarding, relentless terrain of
motherhood." No, it is not for the faint-hearted.
But if you are a mom, have friends who are new or
expectant mothers, or if you work with pregnant
women, this is 33 pages of advice that most of us
never got about motherhood.
And while you're visiting, do look around. We've
added an audio file of me reading my piece from the
anthology,
Go,
Tell Michelle, a new mothertongue piece, and
links to new poems.
Hope you enjoy all the new offerings. one love,
ekere
PS: Please spread the word
Mother Nature
33 pages $8 |
Mother Nature: Thoughts on Nourishing Your
Body, Mind, and Spirit During Pregnancy and Beyond www.ekeretallie.com
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update 23 January 2009
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