Heart for Sale 70 Percent Off

To my Grandmothers:
Anne, Irene, & Inez
Their love surpasses time…

Table of Contents Fairytale < Reality…
• Summthin 4 tha Lovass
Hi, I’m…: • Summertime
• Abstractly Tangible • The Book
• Something Like a Love Poem • Another Tiny Poem
• Vitamin Me • Soul Far
• I am an Artist • Quarter Note
• Who am I? • Star Love
• Until (The One)
Risk… • Sucker
• SeaSalt • Stupid dumb shit
• Chemical Imbalance • The Towel Has Been In Thrown
• Heart for Sale 70% Off • The End
• Sun Down • Winter Strings
• Tiny Poem • Y-O-U
• Cocoon • Y-O-U-2
• Suspense • Reciprocity
• I Prefer the Monsoon • Rejection
• Figment of my Imagination • Sever Snapp
• Funny
• Lion Eyes Becoming…
• Nothing
• Love is • Twenty – Nine
• New Note • Understand
• Love is dumb • Soul Sista
• Predicament • Young People
• I Love the Way • Freedom Forward
• Poet’s Curse • Gray
• Maybe • Golf
• Memories • Cut Glass
• Dance With Me
Tragedies… • Daydreaming
• Midnight • Did You Ever
• Time Heals All Wounds Through • Dream On
Jesus Christ Amen • Easy
• Sixteen
• Era Here We Go Again…
• Shadows • Are there Band-Aids for the
• Smoke Clears Blamable
• Red, Black, & Blue • Foolishness E’Finte
• Heart For Sale 80% Off
•

BLACK… Different…
• Black is Beautiful • New
• Muse • Life Lessons
• Infectious
• Can’t Sleep Truth…
• In Motion • Who is He
• Indian Man •U
• Bold • Weeping Willow
• Inspired • Pressure
• You’ll Be Alright
• Lady Anne

Abstractly Tangible

Abundantly abounding in the aura your
grace bestows
Blissfully basking in your presence
diligently daily
Seeking new ways to know you, learn
you, and serve you
Telling everyone I know, see, and meet
about the Good News
Reaching towards upward Heaven,
stretching out my faith forever
Acknowledging your sovereignty and
letting my light shine as a living sacrifice
Carrying out Your will, praying without
ceasing as I attest to your magnificent
glory
Thanking and thinking about you all day
long, for my story and my song -praising
my Lord and Savior for giving me the
ultimate gift – eternal life

Jesus

Something Like a Love Poem

Picture Me
Colors in a Jar
Colors of me
Something Like Love
Something Like a Love Poem

Vitamin Me

If I wrote a book of poems, would you buy it
If I wrote a poem, would you read
If I bore my seeds, would you receive
what I breed is something sweet
but of me is not only for me
I write seas of colored autumn leaves, you should try it
Bathe my vivid trees, you should buy it
So come get what you need, beloved
You won’t be disappointed.

I am an Artist

I am an artist
A gift is not for sale
Though if you gift me in gratitude
I’ll accept your donation
Cause what is priceless can never be purchased
And we have just made the best exchange
Now we are artist
Free and forming
And our art is our testimony

Who am I?

I am a black butterfly with a mean cat eye
Afro curls and pinkies high
I am a co-heir with Christ
Make the people look twice
And my pen game nice
I like red beans and rice
Gives great wisdom/advice
So my name is Melissa
She’s the realla, dealla, illa
I got zero brothers and one fly sister
I love The Fine Arts and I’m
Pretty Really smart
Not a heartbreaker
But my words annihilate cha
Beach is my fave
TSU Tiger all day
From TN
Nashville where I be
About ministry and poetry
Love vintage wear
Dance this way if you dare
Pen to paper
I take your heart and filet ya

SeaSalt

Two feet in the sand
Drifting parallel to the shore
It’s something about the waves how his hand brushes up against mine
Calming the breeze between us
His six to my five, no shade
anywhere
But he could cover me
If only I needed more than this
And let the waves drown me
Risk

Chemical Imbalance

Instant chemistry became chemical attraction and thus I am chemically bonded when I first
saw you
Reaction euphoric and reeling
Can’t really explain why describe how or what made me comiscally connect to you
helplessly wrapped by your essence
radically.
Still overwhelmed
by…charm?
The side effects should have worn off by now
Must be a chemical imbalance

Heart for Sale
70% off

To my demise
I came out from under my rock
And bloomed the entire garden of my thoughts
Aggressively my heart spieled a tall glass of truth
“Too strong, too serious” it was to chew
Your words tore into me like screws

Sun Down
Sophomore sun
Setting on senior
The rays in between
The clouds varied
Colors bleeding into each other
One not so clear

Sky was warm, cold
Then bright
Smiling, raining
Now cumulous us is to me
Dooming, blooming
I just wanna soak you on me/in me

Tiny Poem
Tiny window
Tiny clock
Doors still locked
I’ve knocked and knocked
Tiny wind
Still blowing over me
Dwell too much
I’ll cry I’ll scream
Might just crack
And I’m already crazy
Hit the road Jack

Journey’s not so easy
Cause the sands of time
won’t let me leave
I loved you too hard then
And now I need you

Cocoon
U might see the white that ravels my case
If I’m feeling risky, I might flip the inside out and let you see the chocolate wallpaper
that comforts me in my cocoon
However that’s rare
But then, I wonder if you care
Are you anxious to see what it is I might turn out to be which is why you stare
And try to read
still seeing nothing cause after all I am a cocoon
Still I silently brew observing while taking shots of green tea from a spoon
See fool my silk’s laced with supernatural truth

Through the aura in which I intrigue
My mystery is unraveling you
But you say warm vibe and bewildering ambience don’t go together
I beg to differ
Why should I sample my gloriousities
with tease
to be misused, confused, and disarrayed
only because love is what we all are looking for anyway
No – the guard to in which these walls I sway
will remain
And if you happen to be around when I bloom
Well then guess what
You were the butterfly
To my cocoon

Suspense
I love love love love love love love x 49 times love love love you.
And I’m in love with you for the rest of my life.
Self-medication
Self-affliction
Cloudy prediction
Heart eviction
Bad habit

Bout to kick it
Eventually.

I prefer the Monsoon
I retreat…but not from the rain
I prefer the monsoon
I retreat from you
The rain cools my tongue sweet
Salty tears scatter
Heart keeps steady patter
Cause you I don’t see
I prefer the monsoon
over you.

Figment of imagination

Are you a figment of my imagination
Well, you might as well be like I’m writing to an illusion
Apparition
Or like talking to oneself when no one’s around trying to envision
What you’re doing right now
Could you be eating or laying down
Wearing a smile or a frown
Calm and reflective or hype and reflexive acting a clown
Even if I chose a destination and slipped to an exotic location

It wouldn’t be an escape from you
I mean that’s what they do – imaginary friends stay with you
The knowledge of you is melted into the DNA of my brain
This is less pleasure than pain
Imaginary friend far too from real
And all too surreal
I wish we could be an epiphany of my reality
That would be my serenity
No longer a figment of my imagination
But a figment of my destiny
So until then, I‘ll continue to shadow you
As you shadow me, subconsciously

Funny
It’s funny
How sometimes antonyms are synonyms
I wonder if you pick up on them
How ironic you own my infinite affection
Yet from the corner of your view, there’s only recurring evidence of rejection
Such a paradox, an oxymoron at its
Least
I continue to contradict myself most hypocritically
And you laugh at me
Cause’ inevitably you hold the key

See how funny I can be
But is this really comedy
Cause for some reason
Now I’m not laughing
I guess the joke is on me…

Lion Eyes
Lion Eyes it was good seeing you again
I call you Lion Eyes because there’s fire in them that
Flickers when you grin
I notice them first
Then next comes your radiant smile
Beautiful and majestic you are

I purr when your eyes growl
I see the sunset on Zaire and the sunrise over African waters
While the moon is still up in the air
When you look at me, you excite me, warm me,
And make me feel good inside
The way in which you look at me – even minus the smile
You give me butterflies that sing and ladybugs that dance
The chance that we had back when really wasn’t a chance
Still, we should’ve danced
I was scared – I guess
But if you’re free – I’m free
There’s new possibility for romance
I’m still growing into my lioness
But the blessing of you in my life is what I could see
You know - if God agrees
If not, then you can just look at me
With Lion Eyes

Nothing

Nothing there
Nothing to be
But why is it that nothing keeps happening to me
Unavailability
the vocabulary word of the week
Why do I seem to keep connecting to means with already attached strings
And never am I obtainable to entertain temptation’s schemes
even as part of the sustenance of sanity is the luxury of fantasy
The conclusion to survival is reality
Which is the air I must breathe
Cause life only allows a certain amount of green
If you feel me
Snap three…
Times
Cause nothing tries to echo something
But it’s only a lie
And then again hope subsides
I tell you I feel like Prince sometimes
“Where is my love life?”

Love is

love is the way you make me write my poems the way I write them
because you make me
write
poems
love is telling you to lose my math but you can’t do it cause I’m no deductible
love is arguing dramatically in a public place
you yell and I retreat
blatantly dissing shadows we
are
love is I wash the silverware and you wash the plates
you freestyle to me in the car then later make me feel the bass
love is the notion that I could make you hate me
but I would never do it
that would be like letting love rape me
and I don’t want to screw it
up
I want to have kids and stuff
maybe even a pup
and we’ll name him
“enough”

New Note

Today I gotta a new note. Though doubt the subject is unfamiliar.
It’s just another spin on how I still can’t get over you. Another note within a note that I tote

around cause as often as you cross my mind, I gotta write it down – disturbing me.
And everywhere I go, I bet I can find something that reminds me of you.

But as much as I channel your energy because surreal is our attachment so I can feel you
thinking of me.

and run into you outta tha blue or you randomly reach out to me at the very
Moment you cross my mind
in 6 months time.

Yet, I can’t touch you, nor feel you touching me.
So, therapeutically I scribe and scribe, paradoxically applying each note “new”

But the subject is all the same
And I guess to make it plain

I’m still in love with you
And it’s pissing me off.

Dummy

Love is Dumb

Love is love is love is dumb
I hate it I beat it like a djembe drum
I dance it when I feel it
When I don’t I effin eat it
So stupid
It’s elitist
When I give it
I never reap it
It’s bull sh*t
I know you peep it
Straight up reckless bitter sweetness
Can’t effin stand it
Don’t prolly need this
Random no-man-ness
Sick of heart bleeding
Scheming while lurking Instagram browsers
And bachelorette party hours
on a d*mn bus
Like Jodeci says
I got to get on up
And outta my head
This poem is dead
Love is dumb
I said what I said.

Predicament

…to let me be me completely
is a lot

more than most think they can
do for me…

This, this bizarre of a
distraction

I mean it’s not going anywhere
might as well get it out

and I’m sorry that it gets too
heavy sometimes

I pray though that one day
Our puzzles find our pieces and
create the picture in my head…

I Love the Way

I love the way you look at me
The way you do when you’re in awe
When you’re trying to seduce
When you’re vulnerable
When you’re livid
The way when you’re excited to see me
You light up like a Christmas tree
your smile is infectious
The way when you’re arrogant
ha, the nonchalant way
The way you look at me when you’re afraid
Nervous and intimidated
How you look at me when you can’t. stop. looking.
Look at me like it’s just us two, like nobody else is around
The way you looked at me the first time you realized when
you were in love with me
I remember that look. It was a long time ago.
You look at me like that now
Look at me the way a man looks when he knows what he feels
Knows what he wants
Because he needs
The way my eyes twinkle when I smile because it’s punctuated by one deep dimple on my
left cheek
The way my eyes nearly close shut when
I really cheese
Because he made me blush

So that my cheeks turn rosy red
Because every time I see him, I get nervous, excited, so many butterflies
And can’t control my visage nor the urge to cry
Because I want to hold him so bad
Since he looked at me at all
And then…
Saw himself

Poet’s Curse
Sometimes I hate being a Poet
Because I’m compelled to write
When I don’t feel right
And I don’t have to fight for the words
They just flow from my soul to a pen
Like the cup of water I just knocked from the counter in my den
To the floor
Not quite a waterfall
But my emotions all – I’m feelin at the time
That by reflex, automatically end up in rhyme
If this were a crime
Life equals the sentence of my time
Yeah…
Like that
Life’ll make you write

Maybe

Yes, no, maybe, must live without, learn to live without,
living without…
you
I’m trying.

Memories

Dip me into fire falls away the ashes
Thus past passes
Cool me with the moon
Born again heart is pure
Untainted ready new blood pumps
Through unscarred veins
Vessels seeking love fresh

Midnight

And I’m weeping
Mourning for Patsy and other slaves that were me
Crying and praying for my ancestors – thanking them
And Jesus
Solemn from watching “12 Years A Slave”
Then, I thought of you
And I’m grieving
Cause I love you
And I emotionally hurt you
Sometime ago
And before that
When I wasn’t around
You lost your father
And that’s got to be
Incredibly hard
I can’t reach you

Cause you won’t let me
And you’ve emotionally hurt me too
So I also grieve me, and a few other life’s beatings
But seem to turn every emotion
Rawly rooted in you, the pain of you
Which is true and untrue
All array
And I probably shouldn’t love you
That hard anyway
But my mind is spaghetti
Confused at the differentiation of the two
Cause all my heart understands
Is that I am alone and you’re alone
So we’re both lonely people
Masking around this sad world for no reason
Cause we actually found each other
Have each other in this world
But we’re hurting apart
When we should be happy together

Time Heals all Wounds
Through Jesus Christ Amen

Triggered
Been awhile
Been healed, been had a new smile
Crack crept open by surprise
Tho knew reading what I did
Would make my spirit cry
Jesus is always my peace
Trigger the Holy Spirit – activate super power
Release
Went there to that place – that sorrow
That pain

Shed some tears and then
As if Heaven heard my sobs
soon then came the rain
Delivered thank you Jesus and never memory going back
But you gotta know when you disregard
Discernment wisdom
You forgo protection
Grieved for that girl in that story
became that woman in that tragic end
coulda been me
woulda been me
but for the unmerited grace of God
that was a test I passed
Thank you Jesus
Godbless her

Sixteen

I was sixteen, yes that was me.
Let me tell what the white man made of me.
I was taken from my country, made a slave,
Brought aboard this ship, which will probably be my grave.
I'm sick, I'm scared and I'm tired,
The atmosphere burns my nose like fire.
The aroma, there's nothing to describe it,
The dream of freedom, that's keeping me alive
By my master and other slaves,
I get stepped on, spat on, beat.
There's so much filth on the floor,
I can hardly find my feet

I've had eight babies already.
You made me have them.
I don't know where they are.
But when I turn around, there was only four.
Don't talk to me about being fed, and did you say bed?
The only word I know is dead.
Suffocation I deal with day in and day out.
Is there anyone that can hear my endless shout?
I was only sixteen,
But somehow,
That was my life.

Era

Epidemic is the name of our era
HIV/AIDS is our terror
Attack
Ya’ll we got to get our people back
We can’t be that wack and let the statistics continue to stack
ACT
We can’t go out like that
Abstinence makes the heart grow stronger
You’ll live longer
And live t tell about an era
Where a generation of people were almost severed
Swiped clean by an epidemic
That was snatching Queen’s and King’s dreams
Cause being on the down low is the scene
Or NOT the scene
Passing STDs
And other things from
Them, to you, to me
The condom broke
And that needle sings
While all of us sting
And the death toll rings
But it all doesn’t have to be

So please
please

Shadows

Hmm

I heard him throwing up before bed last night
He’s scared

Mom purposely told me what his state is
She’s too weak to retain all that newsworry information alone

I was always the strong one
He wasn’t going to tell me and Liz
I guess he felt he was protecting us
But I thought me and him were close enough for that
Besides I’m 21, and the one who will be missing class

to take him to the doctor
No wonder I’ve always had these stomach problems-it’s hereditary

Maybe that’s why I am graduating early
hmm

But will I get to move out right after college
Will the surgery take all of it away
for good

or do I have to stay and continue to help out with motherhood
Mama’ll be too busy being wife
Oh, and “there she cries”

Highly emotional people make me uncomfortable
How long do they think they can swindle Liz
She’s 15, not a kid
And the surgery is tomorrow

But he asks me, can I just give him a ride to the doctor
So, they remove half the intestines now at a regular check up?!

Wow
With as much damage that has been done these past 21 years

My colon’s probably nearing yours, Daddy
“Who are you?”

I use to love when you asked me that and I replied
When you came home from work
“I’m Batman”
But this time, I can’t save you

- 2007

Smoke Clears

Smoke Clears and through watery gaze
Three years of desire
gave way to nothing
I pray
Lord
with eyes all a glazed
How black the ashes
And still burns like red rashes
Can’t you see I love you more than a runner loves his track jacket?
Love is unnecessary craze
Smoke clears and there’s something wrong with my vision
I thought it was love at first sight
Deception is a dirty prison
So you don’t even love me?
OK
My love retires with the fire that could’ve been

Red, Black, & Blue

Red, black, and blue
Those are the colors your boyfriend made when he hit you.
Brown, purple, and maroon
Aren’t those the colors of your bruise?
Love’s color is red, some say pink also.
It’s ironic how you got a pink eye
And bloody mouth
And nose though.
He was just frustrated, but really dedicated?
Aw, is that why you’re in emergency all drugged up and medicated?
Okay, you broke his heart
So he gave you a broken leg
Along with a gigantic knot on your head?
But, he really cares for you
Because this is only the second time he tried to kill you
And since you’re having his child
It won’t hurt to stay awhile…
Red. Black. & Blue.
I don’t like those colors on you.

Summthin 4 tha Lovass

Hey sunshine…
You like eggs?
Easy you over me scrambling to see a tomorrow without you
You so tall…I wouldn’t even want to see pass today
I be daydreaming me jack climbing a beanstalk of…damn. you. beautiful.
Look at God…give Heaven a Hand.
My black Man.
You like pancakes or waffles…
Baby you can have both.
You make me want to bake brownies in the morn…
I feel like Nina Mosely in the reggae club…
He knows he makes me nervous when he looks me in the eye
Cause I’m use to needing control and he reads me like Dr. Seuss
Or front page news and so easily sees beyond lines I swear are in code
tore down all wallsss
Before I knew I’d been sabotaged
And I don’t mind…
Yes I’ll buy your clothes, I’ll cook your dinner too, as soon as I get home from work
And I’ll watch you on the court cause I love how I got home advantage
when we’re one on one
And when you spit…shyyyyyt
I’ll just take a seat cause you make me want to snap snap, and use your imagination
Please don’t judge me that I draw you when I’m inspired which is pretty much all the time
Cause I be feelin like First Lady Michelle Obama when you smile
And if fist bump ain’t enough you can have a hug, a kiss, all this and a white dove

Summertime

In the summertime, specifically June
Everything is right, especially you
You make me smile like the hot golden sun
And sweetly cool me down when the rain comes
Though summer is short and in four months ends
And other seasons you’re mine through pretend
Because time is bound and distance is free
And summer’s lovely blur sighs memories
Is it really worth it to see you
And hoard my best love within the month, June
Who’s to say that this love matters at all
and ponder you but can’t see you in fall
I say with robins and tulips galore
In the summertime, my love has no score

The Book

The book stares, inviting you to come in
It opens and grabs you attention, intriguing, and enticing
You to explore the pages of wonder
It introduces, informs, and shares ideas
As a picture paints with words next to
The pictures on the opposite page
It educates, reveals secrets, and provokes imagination
As it narrates a new world, new space, new time
Not familiar, even if familiar
Still fresh
So fresh
The pages turn like the breeze
Or like the waves in the ocean
Until the tide rests
And the last page flips and lays to your left
And the book closes and in its aftermath
The world is now a part of you
Forever.

Another Tiny Poem

Spring is near
Bring me cheer
Flowers smile
Sunny while
Breezy days
Warm glaze, shadows meet rays
Sweet shades, lemonade
Stands, parks, roller blades
Ice cream man
Feet in the sand
Baby holding my hand
Doggy on lap
Me wearing your favorite baseball cap
Your hand on my thigh
I sigh an easy sigh
Cause I’m high
On such love, such life
Spring is near…I feel it here
But our season seems so far away
Can you hear me when I pray
…can you hear me say…I love you.

Soul Far

Soul far you have managed to steal my
soul far gone
cause each time I sneeze the strings attached from my soul to you
vibrate me violently spark allergic reaction cause my soul is ill immune
I hate thinking about you.
Soul far away you seem, though close enough to keep the wound raw and the flies at bay

Soul. Far. Lost.

Quarter Note

I do love music very so much
But this is not a music poem
I do love you very very much so
Guess this is a love poem
With every thought of you
Evokes a song my joy
Just gleaming and I’m singing
How is it that you do infinite
When I’ll settle for minute with you…
So beautiful, so simple, so sad
That minus any portion of you
My. Heart. Would. Not.
My. Heart. Would. Not.
My. Heart. Would. Not.
Beat. Repeat. Deep.

StarLove

My dearest dear, our love speaks to the stars and they reply
“My…my look at them shine! Let’s name their love
‘omniscient dove’”
It even blinds our light, an Angel’s hub
So we’ll write it in the sky next to thine
See if it’s a tie

For they look to us every night perhaps for the Moon a raise?
In an attempt to compare

Or maybe to just prayerfully gaze
Nonetheless such a spellbinding stare

As they melt into each other’s eyes
Or as they ascend upward sky

Floating on love’s high high past cloud nine
Leaving all worlds behind

My my dearest love, we’ve got starlove…oh my!

Until (The One)

I asked Him
Dear God
as soon as you get a chance
send the flood to wash away all my perils
and like a flood you came
washed away all my doubt, sorrow
stone cold lovelessness
nothingness
before I could think/blink twice your waters
drowned every inkling of bitter memory
false loves, lovers past
erased the bruises I caused my own
scars never to be revisited
because when He sent you
it’s like they never existed
how sweet the residue of any thought of you
I know there could be nothing more true
than this premonition, promise
I’ve been given
how clear the vision
I feel you
and until this prophecy’s revealed
my hope blossoms with each new moon
I’ll wait for you

Sucker

Bull Shhh
Movies are for suckers
And I’m the biggest sucker for watching Love Jones
Again.
Makin me think
About how I don’t ask for much to deserve the kind of love
I deserve
Have so much to give
and my life is not like the movies
but at the end of the day I still got a
Love Jones

Stupid dumb shit

When I go out or I’m chillin
I think of you
When I’m salsa-ing at the club
or reading in my room
When I’m alone or around other people
I think of you
When I’m praying
when I’m playing
cards
I think of you
In the shower
In about an hour
When I’m eating
When I’m feigning – only off of me dreamin…
How it would be, could be, should be
When I’m stressed, depressed
Laughing, rapping
Winning, behind
Sometimes dumbshit and you still be on my mind
Or I could lie and say I’m not in love
But either way shit still hurts
Dumb, stupid shit, f’kn dumb

The Towel Has Been In Thrown
I…I throw in the towel
All this foolish guile
Officially now fumes foul
No more heart smiles
Cause I throw in the towel
No hope lies here
I quit at this poems command
How do you dry a dry tear?
I mean falling down adores me
And who again is stand?
Better yet, how do you cry a dry cry?
All my ducts are in denial
I feel my face in numerous pieces
Right there in that pile
You say to put it back together
And yet the pain increases
I feel…
I feel like the gum on the bottom of a mulch man’s shoe
You get the metaphor, or must I break it down for you?
Basically, I’m feelin sour and sugar free
Not to mention, I’m stuck to a fate that just keeps steppin on my dreams
See – I must be pathetic
Who comes up with this stuff
I tell you
Sometimes loneliness is kind of rough

If I smoked
Next would come
Puff puff…

The End
In my mind I’m certain it’s the
end
But in my heart it’s only the
beginning
I hate you
I hate you
I want to hate you
I can’t hate you
Why can’t I just hate you
And really I do
But
I love you
And I hate that sh*t

Winter Strings

Calendar says to me it’s summer
Bummer
Why do my days seem so long
Why is the chill so strong
Why are my days so long like winter
Isn’t it?
Cause everything seems gloom
I can’t even call you
How rude is everything to me
Cause you’re not in my reach
Here with me
To watch me dream
About you…lol
All the things we’d do
tomorrow’s tomorrow
Right now
Why are the strings so long
Winter’s been gone
But I still smell the snow
And my love has nowhere to go
Cause it can’t get to you