Poem by Gayle Bell. Photo by Mariam Armisen

I’ll be ready for death
when grinning skins catches me
Till then I’m gonna live each ounce of life
like the Lord gave me a pound
Now in the life- I chase holy truth
until closures made clear

Photo by Mariam Armisen

Past floods of regrets before me clear
Times in fools haste I mated death
until Angels revealed truth
The love of women embrace me
saved me from addictions relentless pound
returning to me now precious life

When societies judgments of my life
is a maze I hack with rapier pen and mind’s focus clear
Zealots screech my guilt before Revelation’s final hammer pound
I & mine march till the last breath’s hiss of death
“This is my life you don’t rule me”
“My life, my immovable truth”

What’s done in the dark the light will shine the truth
was my Aunt Berta’s grim proclaiming of life
In my youth-full impatience, this gift eluded me
She would smile a knowing deep within eyes no longer clear
at the hour of her death
my hand she grasped welcoming her heart’s final pound

I walk urban quick, quick sidewalk pound
aware the rocky path was walked before me-loving in the truth
I will love women beyond the stillness of my flesh’s death
Rainbow parades and Kente cloth interweave my life
no time for label’s rigid directions I walk clear
insight forged from the fire of being me

Present days find me
full from her kiss in my soul she does pound
Welcome tears that washes past hurts clear
Once I ran, I now claim this cultural truth
Bulldagger, In the life
now, until 100 past the hour of my death

I will live in truth
all my life
until death