African Voices Summer 2017 AV Summer 2017 Digital Issue

Monk Ivory is dancing inside a wooden rib cage. Pleats and pant legs catch a scattered wind. The rhythm is respiration. Stop moving and you die. Bare feet side stepping from the soul— is it magic or madness that I taste a lover in the sweat salting my lips? Tonight is hardly about the promise of morning but rather the dangerous delight that darkness’ shroud croons. Brass and bass and tinkle and chime scour the scene for hosts. On earlobes, under tongues, behind teeth, between bosom, inside thighs, beneath feet is home. © 2017 Angel C. Dye Before the Media Makes You a Man Beautiful baby boy Becoming bigger but still brilliant Behind your head or behind your back bronzed in brown and born brave between boyhood but somehow beastly bare hands belie your body as bulletproof © 2017 Angel C. Dye african Voices 21

African Voices Summer 2017 AV Summer 2017 Digital Issue | Page 21