the ghosts of women once girls

somewhere a little girl is reading aloud
in the middle of a dirt road. she smiles
at the sound of her own voice escaping
the spine of a book. she feeds on her hunger
to know herself. she has not yet been taught
to dim, she sits with the stars beneath her feet, a constellation of things to come.

as if a swallowed moon, she glimmers.
her head wrap rolls out in a gutter, bare feet scat the earth, the ghosts of women
once girls make bridge of the dust dancing behind her, she decorates the ground in
dimples
she stomps suffering out the spirit
hooves drumming the earth in circles
she holds gladness in her mouth
like a secret teased out of a giggle
joy like her sadness overflows
she is not the opinions of others
she is of visions and imagination
somewhere a little girl is reading aloud
in the middle of a dirt road.
she smiles at the sound
of her own voice escaping the spine of a book. she is a room full
of listening, lending herself
to her own words
somewhere

a deep remembering of what was she survives all.

Posted by kind permission of the poet.
Photo by Amber Clay/Pixabay.

Aja Monet

Aja Monet is a surrealist blues poet, storyteller, and organizer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She won the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam poetry award title in 2007 and follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets participating and assembling in social movements. Her poems explore gender, race, migration, and spirituality. In 2018, she was nominated for a NAACP Literary Award for Poetry and in 2019 was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry for her cultural organizing work in South Florida. She cofounded a political home for artists and organizers called Smoke Signals Studio and facilitates “Voices: Poetry for the People,” a workshop and collective in collaboration with Community Justice Project and Dream Defenders. Aja Monet also serves as the new Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against all women and girls. Her first full collection of poems is titled My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter. She is currently working on her next full collection of poems entitled Florida Water.

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Resource TypesPoetry