Author: Lauren DeSantis
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Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend
Let Us Descend follows Annis, an enslaved girl from a Carolinian rice field, as she is sent away by her sire to New Orleans, Louisiana. During the year she spends fighting for her life on the sugar plantation, Annis encounters various nature spirits who both serve as help and adversaries. One of these spirits is…
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Three Haikus: Nine Nights
F.P.E. Freshly brewed iced tea Poured over sour lemon Encrusted with ice chunks Forlorn owl fly Past the bruised pearl moon over Eternal stars burning black Fake tongue stumbling Pry natural words from my mouth Easily come forth A.L.H. Ash to ash, blinding Lava spit unto the sky Heaven bound to Earth Alive and breathing…
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Year Of The Snake
2025. A new, glorious year on planet Earth with promises of growth and good fortune. And for those of East Asian descent, the end of January means ringing in the next year of the Lunar calendar. And 2025 is the Year of the…Snake. Wait, what? I have only lived through one Snake year back in…
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Nail Polish
For some reason, my dreams have images of nails painted In colors of blood red And shimmering dark blue For some reason, he appears With my family And all of us sitting around a table That one must descend a staircase to access And I am forced to sit next to him For some reason,…
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Poetry- She’s Porcelain
Scrolling… You’re styling wrong You’re eating wrong You’re sitting wrong You’re breathing wrong You’re existing wrong Wrong wrong wrong wrong – She s m a s h e d her phone into the ground Watched it slide Across the floor In front of the closet door Her ragged breathing Rattled her ears The screen…
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To My Older Brother
I hated you. When we held the first board meeting to discuss event dates, you said that you expected the whole board to attend every event. One of the events conflicted with the spring musical, and I told you that I couldn’t go. You made a commitment to this board; you chastised me during a…