Curses and Gratitude
By Taylor Bland
You have let…
The rifts of money steal your joy
So have you let the idea of flaccid penis,
New roundness in the belly,
A sudden but inconsequential loss of balance,
Stillness (yet shifting),
The temperature,
Solutions (and lack thereof),
Honesty (and its unwitting hurt),
Pimp you
You have let an alternate universe spin you
off of a real one
And ‘false positives’ riddle you ‘sick and tired’t’
You vacillate between curses and gratitude
And take up residence in fictional poles when
there is common ground a bit more habitable
You let time pass but won’t let things
be
The array of personal experience
Has summed into…
‘Triggers’ and ‘toxicity’ termed,
Anger and Sadness (in limited speech)
When you have let
Shame
Desolation
And your gripes with duplicity
Cook you into a muddled crest
That still contains so much of a
Life-giving magic…
It’s your reach for the softened silver ‘edges’
And,
Your bond with life’s fitful courses of
guarantee
Which,
Ms. Morrison would say is
Your Happiness—
‘When your anticipation meets
certainty’
They ask if you have been deceived by the current state of things
As if your range of emotions lend a
Red flag to joy
I’ve not been deceived.
I’ve just found myself frozen at the sharp peaks of success
While tumbling down from what felt like
A height I deserved to withstand
I’ve not been deceived.
Perhaps,
Disenchanted.
About the Author
Taylor Bland was born and raised in Metro Detroit, Michigan, as the eldest of 5 kids. After college, Taylor moved to Washington, DC where she obtained her Master’s in Education from Johns Hopkins University to teach full-time in DC schools. While teaching, Taylor developed a passion for creating safe spaces for her black and brown students, as she learned first hand the inequities of being a black student, herself. For therapy and for fun, Taylor began writing short stories and poems at the age of 7 years old. As she ventured through young adulthood, Taylor began using her writing as a means to understand, accept, and even love her life choices and experiences and how they connect her to the ever-growing network of women she calls her family, her friends, and her beloved ancestors. More importantly, Taylor writes as a means of resistance—she writes ‘to fill the broken cup that always appears to be both pouring while it is leaking.