Today…the First Day of August is a Wednesday

And as you know, “Avenues on Wednesday” regularly features poetry and what better way to recognize the first day of August than by presenting poets. Our scheduled poet hails from Seattle, Washington, and joins the ranks of those “avenue” poets who appeared before her.  

Tiffany Haty                                                                                    

I WAS THE QUIET BLACK GIRL WITH UNRULY PLAITS

Sitting barefoot in the dignity of the Black American Ghetto.

Archbishops are waxing poetic in a film.
Daggers of blood are thrown through the thickening fog
I am a bride with no dowry
Unmarried
I own half of my Blackness from the Diaspora
Your whore has no name,
And I wept for years in a Chapel
Modest and plain.
Love was never returned
I drank pot liquor when I was seven years old at my Grandparents home for which they labored for as proud Black Americans.
Images of an illicit affair are flickering on the TV screen against the darkness of the night
2:00 a.m.
For I was the Quiet Black Girl.

I lived in a piteous grotto bequeathed for the insane belonging to a runaway ex-slave of which I am the ancestral daughter.

Strange temptations run through me to follow the Religious Cult leader as a new woman, but I hesitate.
Fear of neo-paganism on the chalkboard.
I am the ebb and flow of the forsaken
In Black Watch Plaid
I became the quiet Black girl in elementary school with unruly plaits.
My eyes looked down at the flooring from behind my black mourning veil.
I watch the forbidden door open
My parents drove me home at night while they casually smoked their respective cigarettes as an interracial couple, and it was raining
The light turned green at the intersection
I remember 1978
There was a boy I kept secret
They say I’m mad
I lived in a gray room
A prayer for the crazy woman
A broken-down sanctuary for the forgotten woman.

Tiffany Haty (photo provided)

Tiffany Haty is a creative writer whose written work has appeared in aaduna. She considers herself to be a modern woman prone to exotic woolgathering, living amongst the backdrop of a dystopian ghetto. She has a strong liking for literature and cats and you can find out more about her on her blog at: https://tiffanyhaty.blogspot.com

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As you may know, the next issue of aaduna is currently being prepped and the plan is to launch it next week. (Look for the official announcement.)  There will be exciting poets and poems in that issue, so here is a sneak peek, small snippets from three poets.  You will be able to read their full work in a few days. 

Michael Benson, Brooklyn, NY  (photo provided)

{Mary Stone}

dance hand-in-hand with the wet sidewalk, 

play drunken chess peeking through the slats,

hitch a skirt up high across black jelly clouds,

pull the string and she is mary stone.

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Bridgette D. Jordan, Southfield, MI (photo provided)

The Art of Self-Soothing

He thinks he’s a healer—says optimism is low risk. He provides pastoral care to the emotionally conflicted when no one asks him to…when no one wants him to. He says he likes women with tongues that move indiscriminately—a woman unafraid to chew with her mouth open.

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Joan McNerney, Ravena, NY (photo  provided)

suicide sneaks

thru blue bedroom, a chair
falls across bedspread
spins along random floor
i wander up wall, hang
suspended from light bulb

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Over the next few days, we will share snippets of the work by other poetry contributors who will be in aaduna’s newest issue.

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