Three poems by Rickey Rivers Jr.

Brave Nudity

Naked woman walking senselessly, in this city you are lost and unknowing.

You are listless, uncaring of your nakedness.

Be you Eve, or Eve-like allegory?

You walk like you own this world.

You walk like you are clothed.

Are you not ashamed?

Your naked feet caress dry ground and yet you do not wince.

You're some such magic I've heard tell of before from some such language not yet spoken.

All's well

Anxiety hereditary, I shudder to think of the shackled.

The day ahead can't be worse. A gospel song comforts.

I think of future with dreadful thoughts, sometimes not.

At times, I know not why my heart thumps erratic.

I say all is well but reality is a harsh chill.

I sweat a bucket of self I haven't met.

Quake

We dance beneath a swinging chandelier

as the ground rumbles beneath us.

We are happy.

In the kitchen the good plates shatter

and the windows follow.

We are stronger than ownership.

Let our possessions crumble, arrogant serenade.

Rickey Rivers Jr. was born and raised in Alabama. He is a writer and cancer survivor. His stories and poems have appeared in various publications and are forthcoming in Picaroon Poetry, Dodging the Rain, Pink Plastic House, Three Drops from a Cauldron (among other publications). Twitter.com/storiesyoumight and also https://storiesyoumightlike.wordpress.com/