Three Poems by Kobina Wright: Evolution of Elindy, Nightstand, Neglect

Three Poems
by Kobina Wright

Evolution of Elindy

Age is eye opening.
Elindy’s old enough to see with white light
young enough to prefer blue
and candlelight.

She wears perfume expensive enough
for people to gravitate
cheap enough to save
only months for it.

It was easier in the 11th grade
when she cared only for her thoughts
and she knew everything.

She was an advertisement.
One she’d cut out in the 11th grade
and segmented into a nose, one eye
a half a mouth, an ear and cheek.
She was collaged on poster boards
scattered with cutouts of burning buildings
diamond rings, a bottle of gin
and purple nail polish.

It’s a little different now with
the yellowed segments and cracked glue.
She laughs now though
nothing’s humorous
shakes hands and tries to appear open
interested, likable
tearing in secret.

Nightstand

Buries upstairs they’re
tucked beneath mints novels
journals and vibrator.

These are only baby pictures.
The few she pried from her mother.
For years they’ve survived
encased in faux leather unmarked.

They’re with her and cousins
at park playgrounds.
Of her on the lap of
her great-great-grandmother
both smiling. Toothless.
Of her in the hospital on her
second birthday and a whole series of
being restrained by her, then thin, mother
on the beach, tethered.

The others are downstairs
in albums alongside tangible memories.
The baby ones are guards
against itch and suffocation
that beg for a gun.

Neglect

A foot snakes between her backyard fence
and concrete liner, one
even basks there.
She surveyed, surprised at the size
and stealth of dinosaur weeds.
They’re hearty, meaty enough
to brandish metal spikes and she has
latex gloves.
Twenty the size of her jeaned leg fits
into the bin with snails slugs spiders.
And rest.

Kobina Wright is working on a series of essays that reflect her life and childhood and this year has been published in a variety of publications including Blackberry, Blue Lake Review and Extract(s). She is a second generation Southern California native and attended the University of Georgia for two years before transferring to California State University, Fullerton, where she earned her BA in journalism, with a minor in Afro-Ethnic Studies.

Copyright 2014, © Kobina Wright. This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.