Ralen+Robinson

__**Wonder Bra**__
Comfortable straps but sometime strapless always there to support.

Imperfection perfected Round and plumped

Lifts you up but never brings you down Outfits on the inside

Bedazzled and lace Cotton and silk

Red, pink purple blue and green Always a color for you

From small to big AA-DD there’s a size for anyone

My favorite piece of clothing The wonders of a wonder bra

__**Room**__ I stare at the faces that began to weep I try to understand why its like that The tears trails down the agony and the silent yells elude my hearing.

I stand in a room full of despair but don’t know what to do.

I see the weeping mother cry out for her son The family friends around her in a circle of pain and emptiness I try to reach out to the weeping mother but death has taken her breath

__**Fire**__ But still, like dust, I'll rise. Pour ceresin on my life and watch it burn Let my dreams, hopes, and futures go up in flames Let the fire take my life as it spreads unto my skin and let the flames burn to my core. Let my existences burn straight to my core until I’m nothing. Let me be nothing but ashes and a faint memory of who I was. Let the ashes I turned into blow away into the world I left with whispers of who I was. First line from "Still I rise" -Maya Angelou-

__**Nikki Giovanni**__

 * Quilts**

Like a fading piece of cloth I am a failure

No longer do I cover tables filled with food and laughter My seams are frayed my hems falling my strength no longer able To hold the hot and cold

I wish for those first days When just woven I could keep water From seeping through Repelled stains with the tightness of my weave Dazzled the sunlight with my Reflection

I grow old though pleased with my memories The tasks I can no longer complete Are balanced by the love of the tasks gone past

I offer no apology only this plea:

When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt That I might keep some child warm

And some old person with no one else to talk to Will hear my whispers

And cuddle Near


 * Possum Crossing**

Backing out the driveway the car lights cast an eerie glow in the morning fog centering on movement in the rain slick street

Hitting brakes I anticipate a squirrel or a cat or sometimes a little raccoon I once braked for a blind little mole who try though he did could not escape the cat toying with his life Mother-to-be possum occasionally lopes home. . . being naturally. . . slow her condition makes her even more ginger

We need a sign POSSUM CROSSING to warn coffee-gurgling neighbors: we share the streets with more than trucks and vans and railroad crossings

All birds being the living kin of dinosaurs think themselves invincible and pay no heed to the rolling wheels while they dine on an unlucky rabbit

I hit brakes for the flutter of the lights hoping it's not a deer or a skunk or a groundhog coffee splashes over the cup which I quickly put away from me and into the empty passenger seat I look. . . relieved and exasperated ... to discover I have just missed a big wet leaf struggling. . . to lift itself into the wind and live


 * My first Memory**

his is my first memory: A big room with heavy wooden tables that sat on a creaky wood floor A line of green shades—bankers’ lights—down the center Heavy oak chairs that were too low or maybe I was simply too short For me to sit in and read So my first book was always big

In the foyer up four steps a semi-circle desk presided To the left side the card catalogue On the right newspapers draped over what looked like a quilt rack Magazines face out from the wall

The welcoming smile of my librarian The anticipation in my heart All those books—another world—just waiting At my fingertips.

__**Nikki Giovanni**__
Nikki Giovanni is a remarkable writer and a talented female. She expresses her poetry through a unique outlook that is truly one of a kind. She is a gentle writer so when you read some of her work its like you feel for her through her talented pen. In Possum Crossing lines 5-6 says “Hitting brakes I anticipate a squirrel or a cat or sometimes a little raccoon I once braked for a blind little mole who try though he did could not escape the cat toying with his life” even for a rodent where some people cringe at them she talks about them as poor defenseless animal. She sees them as not just a rodent but a creature where there equal as a human being. Nikki brings her witting to life as it captivates her audience with a compelling visualization. In the poem “My first memory” she’s very descriptive right down to the floor. In the poem it brings you into the room where you’re sitting in a chair and the weight of the table is making the floorboard creek. In lines 9-10 its very vivid “In the foyer up four steps a semi-circle desk presided to the left side the card catalogue” In it your in the foyer standing there looking at the large desk. Nikki is an amazing woman who lets her audience have a piece of her in her witting. She spreads her remarkable talent with the world she lets her pen do the talking.

__**My Poetry**__
I feel my poetry has evolved from each poem. It leaves my audience questioning what it really means and if what I’m talking about is really just the surface. In the poem “Wonder Bra” the question is am I really talking about a bra or something totally different is there a double meaning. I like the unknown in my poetry because I’m awesome and creative. Line 5 “Lifts you up but never brings you own” can mean anything because it could be talking about a person the beauty of unknown is reveled. I like how I can go deeper in meaning and be all dark but then become lighter and more playfulness.