2PENS&LINT
a new direction in poetry
2 Pens & Lint LLC
P.O. Box 3292
Philadelphia, PA 19130
"THANK YOU"
The space between
You and I fits me perfectly, no
Need to shift the inseams to come closer or press further
Away, stay right where you are
Neglect left enough room for
Me to grow
Left enough room for me to know
Who I am without your self hatred
Lack of presence left
me safe and grounded
You not around is the push I need.
Your distant sound's
pull too weak to bring me down
Thank you
Mama
You were not supposed to be that, my mama
That's why
I accept every missed milestone
And every blatant attempt to hurt me
Every attempted low blow toward daddy
Every single word that bleeds
Drunken fights
and angry
voicemails that hangover
My hesitant listen and undeserved response
No, I am not a bitch like you say
But yes, I have done it without you
And yes, I really do feel that way
No need for you to say more.
Sores have since healed and
scabbed over
I hear you from where you are
Thank you, mama, for producing reminder scars
Today
No longer needing to fear who I would have
Become had you not given me away
Couldn't be more grateful for all that you did not do. While
So many forget to thank
Their toxics for teaching them how to caution
And you played your position
And so I write this now.
As one of few who can thank
Their real father for being a good black man on
Father's Day.
-Candice D. Iloh
-Thank You is featured in Catalyst.
ROSES.
Roses
Are so beautiful from afar
But become painful when pulled
From mother earth, she
Didn't warn me about you.
Now, a thorn in my side
Soft petal's scent once of allure
Only hide your danger.
Wasn't no pain foreseen in my view
Not every girl wishes to be brought
Flowers, not if it means they'd leave
Her crying for hours on end.
Wondering why she'd allowed herself to
Invest in
A bouquet that'd only die too soon.
Never meant to bloom, I guess,
Past July of 09 or maybe it was back in
May
I ask you a simple question?
Why'd you have to be such a prick?
-Candice D. Iloh
-Roses is featured in Catalyst.
So I said to Him...
Some say that
We
Wave our fingers in their faces
Roll eyes with no reason if we want to
Anger misplaced, smack
as we loudly chew our bubble gum. With
an added neck roll
And belligerent voice raised
They can't control me
A no he didn't
Oh no we aint the ones to mess with
Don't get it twisted, we'll fight
a bitch
We
don't play no games
Identity smothered in these
one dimensional defense
mechanisms
Switch to another
embarrassing television show, maury
povich
Another sistah screaming
you don't know me
before an entertained crowd
pleased by her abrasive buffoonery
Look how we assist them make a fool of we
Fed the bate for tomorrow's media feed
alcohol to
open wound
Continued Mockery
Black girls.
I am deemed merely
an angry black girl.
Curious to know
when they look if
this is all that they expect from me.
But I? Well, I
am not the girl on ya tv as the tv defames
her. Not the girl clinging to obnoxious rhetoric across
talk show stages in search for love by having
babies at too young of an
age and, not the one who cries in silence at night
alone; Hating my own epidermis, searching for whatever I
missed in my father or a home in which my legs need not spread
for welcome. No, I'm
Not plagued by absent daddy syndrome, so I say to him
that tried to feed off a presumed insecurity...
Before you allow yourself to believe that
you can just roll your tires all over my
concrete
Let me remind you of one thing:
I am me.
But
This is...
not some overly arrogant statement of
vain conceit, just a testament that you
are not
my dead end street
not my last hope
nor are you my definitive conclusion
Somehow you've been coaxed by some
egotistical elusion that here forever I
will be
But forever is a long time
And you are not that great and
What once made you look so good before
has surely begun to fade
You just
Kept on making me wait as if
My life was
in the hands of your wristwatch
But time's - a - tickin
My peace and patience witherin and
so was my self-esteem
I will not be jumpin over high beams
To convince anyone that I, too, am worth the leap.
-Candice D. Iloh
-So I Said To Him... is featured in Catalyst.
2 Pens & Lint Interview with Candice D. Iloh