after Sandra Cisneros
You bring out the delicate in me
I brought in a beetle from the garden
It dances in the wind of resistance
You bring in a flower for me
I laugh through the sorrow of daylight
You wring out the dew from your eyes
They sing about the conquering of others
They wake up the room with their song
They beat out the sins of the children
He is the colonizer brought out
It brings in the smoke with the fire
We sang with the righteous fury
I go with the grace of a pitbull
I swing a bat at the bastard
Jasmine L. Combs
Jasmine L. Combs is a writer, educator, and spoken word artist from Philadelphia. Her work focuses on the personal as universal and the intersecting relationships between Blackness, womanhood, girlhood, mental illness, love, and home. She has competed in poetry slams both locally and nationally, winning Philly's 2015 Grand Slam Championship, College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) 2016, and was a semi-finalist in the 2015 National Poetry Slam. Jasmine has been published in Apiary Magazine, Vagabond City Lit, Vinyl Poetry, Painted Bride Quarterly, and is the author of two poetry chapbooks; Universal Themes (2014) and This Drowning Was A Baptism (2019). Visit jasminelcombs.com for more.