Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
His lupin fields spurn old
Deceit and agile poppies dance
In golden riot. Each day is
Fulminant, exploding brightly
Under the gaze of his exquisite
Sires, frozen in the famed paint
Of dead masters. Audacious
Sunlight casts defiance
At their feet.
I soften peppers in a well-greased pan and
make announcements.
I say, in the afterlife we cannot allow a single
particle of our light
to diminish. I am not a woman-prophet but I
know paradise. I have seen my soul sitting
on grass.
Maya Angelou
There, I learned God doesn’t know shame,
and after six days He allowed our
atmosphere to make certain souls wince;
Pierrot
we crawl under its magnificence. Here, I can
attain ordinary heavens. Here, I attend to
my book of questions. What is love? Why
does it say,
“Allow me to mogul your soul?” Where does
it keep what it takes? What does the
prostrating shadow request? Why do rocks
enslave
Tsitsi Jaji
Under the bridge there are
stones growing
smooth with the
slippage of water
and the
smear campaign of silt.
The moon floats
closer
and closer,
dragging below the bridge.
water? What is the slave’s poem? Does the
sea favor its roar
or murmur?
The doll cannot answer. The furrow in her
bottom lip suggests
that entry into ordinary heaven only requires
recognition of it, for the soul’s arrogance to
weigh less than a mustard seed.
Is it time
or a limpid ripple
of maize-silk swimming?
And while we look away
I am sorry for you, I tell her.
You witness but don’t testify.
Ordinary Heaven
Hope Is The Thing With Feathers
Ladan Osman
Emily Dickinson
I arrange a doll in a chair and wait for her to
speak.
'Hope' is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—
I want to say, “Be!” but am an ordinary
creation. I watch for the folds under her eyes
to twitch.
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—
I have many dreams, I say to her.
In my dreams I’m better than myself.
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