2 Poems

Possibilities

I’ll bet you could roll a blunt

Tightly packed with an indica lullaby

No sticks

No stems

I bet your ecstasy sounds like a mass gospel choir

Sing baby sing

When you dance

I bet you dance like no one is watching

Hands outstretched your God and your salvation

Legs twisting like a sultry tornado

A healed tailbone and a face lifted to the sky

You would look good bald-headed

Dread-headed

Waves sicker than the Atlantic

Or a platinum blonde asymmetrical bob à la 90s video vixen

I’ll bet you look good in any crown

I’ll bet you do more than win when bet on black

You roll sevens and no snake eyes

Never the reneger

Always a draw 4 on deck

I bet you know every word to Method Man and Redman’s Da Rockwilder

and when you join a cypher

your shit snatches wigs, lights cigs, gets big

When the revolution begins

i’ll bet you’ll be down center, up front and rolling deep

you’ll be bringing water to the set-up, the pre-game, the cookout, to the sit-in, to the rally

that’s just how you do

When the revolution begins

and the movement calls

i’ll bet you’ll be ready

for anything

May the Vengeance Be With You

(after Sasha Banks)

All the living after this will be the vengeance,

after the final ship of The Empire crash lands somewhere where the vines are hungry to reclaim what is theirs, after the stock markets are no longer funding hunger and theft across the galaxy and there is nothing left to buy, after all the guns and bullets and rifles and weapons of male-ego destruction are rendered biodegradable by the sheer will, force and poetics of the people, after media pundits and shock jockeys lose their mics to griots and elder wordsmiths, after the Light comes on and darkness is forced back to its place because everything has a place and vengeance has a place like here and there and then and now but now has to make up for then and living has a place now, and now we breathe in an air meant for lungs that expand to hold rebellions and reunions and now we see something blacker in the mirror, blacker not darkness, and now we link arms and join voices and meet eyes and hold hands and drink the same water from this side of the Light and now vengeance looks less like a reaction and more like reality, more like being, more like here and now for all the agos and ages and more like life and life abundantly

Nicholas Steven George is a poet and teacher from Newark, NJ, based in Richmond, VA. He is the author of three books of poetry: Just Some Stuff I Wrote Down (2009), EL-OH-VEE-EE (2010), and Carnegie Halls in Shower Stalls (2023). He has performed at venues such as TedXCharlottesville, American Psychological Association Annual Convention, the University of Lynchburg, and Opera Roanoke. Nick's poems and performances have been commissioned by Greater Public and the Academy Center of the Arts. His award-winning work dwells at the intersection of culture, identity, and spirituality. He has been writing, performing, and teaching for more than two decades.