for Raych

Printer’s Row downtown loop
where presses once spun words
onto paper, the BreakBeat poets
spin words in the air.

          Let’s make some noise for Rachel Jackson.

One of four young women who read
leaps the 3 foot stage, grabs the mike,
owns the room – fast.  She reads her
1st poem from a yellow pikachu
phone case…

          ‘Thank you back parking lot.’

          You know my titles be just like ‘the story.’
         
          It is what it is y’all.

gets laughs.
         
           Boom!  Cool!  We good!

She’s got us – we are hers.  She pulses energy.
Waves her long tatted arms, elegant slender
hands mesmerize with pointed jazzed nails.

She is a church girl and the back parking
lot was her first playground.  There were dance
parties, double dutch competitions, 4 square,
footballs and games appeared from church ladies’
car trunks while Amens shouted from sanctuary
windows.

          Church mother’s remind us to hold
          our chests when we jump…Where else
          can I fight Marie and pray she gets home
          safely…

          I wish every part of this church was the back
          parking lot.  The only place God won’t
          divide us.

Boom!  Cool!  We good!