The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Constructing a Dream (an ode for Zaire)~ By Kay Bell

6/22/2017

0 Comments

 
You take the cereal boxes away from their fate
and you fill them with purpose;
they come alive as trains, elevators, sometimes an emotional mother
 
​and as a city is built in your youth and virtue
you seize its possibilities; taking all the risks
to inspire an old moon to harvest great beginnings
 
I carried you once, four pounds of growing belly
my heart burned and I was alone
but not really
 
You stroked my maternal odds and made me something
each time I tried to convinced myself
I was better off dead
 
Now, I buy the family size boxes of cereal, the ones with extra room
for seats and passengers who bear sons of their own;
sons who are faithful to the occupation of unconditional love
 
and because I am so clumsy and sensitive
I often crush the corner of the rectangular packages
before I get them home
 
You say: “Momma, I will use it anyway”
and I cry in private
as you go in your room and build us both a dream.


Author Bio:
Kay Bell was born in Barbados and migrated to Harlem, New York before she could barely walk. Her work appears on the online quarterly journal: "The American Aesthetic”, in the book: "Brown Molasses Sunday: An Anthology of Black Woman Writers" as well as in other venues. Currently, she is earning a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York and lives in the South Bronx.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org