Lolita Stewart-White

3 poems

Self Portrait as Hoodie

black
woman
be
hoodie
hovering
ovah
what
remains
of
her
husband’s
woolly
mane
she
be
angel
of
fleece
kissing
his
scalp
golden
she
be
blockin’
blows
with
crushed
softness
she
be
darkness
clinging
to
his
skin
she be black ten/ der/ ness lingering

 

Afro Beautiful

We are cuddled

in a breakfast joint.

Our feelings

simmering

like fish & grits.

I gaze at his full lips.

He blows the

black

in his coffee & sips.

I swear this yellow boy

be Afro beau /

ti /

ful

My heart be the steam

in his cup.

 

A Song for You

Come, my love. Drape your whiskey-colored skin
around my brown flesh, cape-like, so we can wear each other.
Bless me with the fullness of your body on the porch
of my imagination. Come, and I promise to touch you whole.
Please hurry, hurry, my love, before I am a field
of daffodils out yonder.

 

Lolita Stewart-White is a poet who lives and works in Miami. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and Cave Canem fellow. Her work has appeared in Callaloo, Kweli, Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal and Green Mountain Review.