Today's poem is by stephanie roberts

Where is My Hand Allowed to Be Beauty
       

crown beauty: pastel, bone,
pearl & ivory, unscribed envelope
—never night-handled,
no quarter notes, not sharp nor flat.

where are we in the lyric binders
of beautiful?
where are the inks of our terracotta
& earth fingers against
the annihilating hunger & gnarled
ubiquity of the pale dove's
milk standard?

offer a cup brewed no sugar
no cream to know
more about dark thirst.
are you holding out or in?

our glory needs its own gentle midwife.
its own silk protector against yt poets
who would call it the n word, n*ppy.

smush the forming kaolin vessel,
most wanted for pedestals, & snatch
at gold ring thieving.

with a mouthful of volcanic beach
I gesture dusky middle finger (slim
& magic) to where I want to be.
is this all allowed me?

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from EVENT
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission