By Conney Williams on August 19, 2021
Conney Williams: Four Poems
Selected by Alexis Rhone Fancher, Poetry Editor
the last flame
I
first breath like last flame
she formless like smoke
gristle & guilt are her altar
she the hard timber
sacrifice lives here
she lap my bark underbelly
incinerate me like god
indigo woman so weather-worn
her aftertaste is ginger sunrise
upon a tongue so bona fide
a clever open faced furnace
she glow incandescent 10,000 years
eyes dilate like lebanon summer
her words are truth and flint
when she conjure forest fires
all my prayers combust
she don’t leave me ember
or charred residue
ash abandoned like memory
she consume me spontaneous
like I am a desert bush
II
satisfaction require that I smolder
blaze bluer than a comet’s trail
sacrifice all that lumber
be engulfed by god
*
waking to love in a garden near babylon
had i expected all this
i would be a younger man
full of hard muscle
wise like resistance
my vocabulary would be
laden with back-talk
had i expected you
i would be more confident
you would see the hazel
of my daughter’s eyes in mine
all of you is more than
this rigid bone and reluctance
unimagined song you are
so much more woman
than adam or i expected
*
broken apology
you rather give head
than to say you’re sorry
save your spit
i have forgiveness
for the both of us
*
sometimes it’s not a choice
both eyes full of ambush
soft fang of your appetite
venus fly trap smile
accessible and eager
you use both hands
like any super predator
you want the sum of me
incarcerate length of me
my consent burn conclusive
like wildfire inside your kiln
Photo credit: Alexis Rhone Fancher
Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Conney Williams is a Los Angeles based poet, actor and performance artist originally from Shreveport, Louisiana where he worked as a radio personality. He released two critically acclaimed cds (2015) of his poetry accompanied by music: “Unsettled Water” and “River&Moan." He has two collections of poetry “Leaves of Spilled Spirit from an Untamed Poet (2002)” and “Blues Red Soul Falsetto (2012).” His latest poetry collection entitled “The Distance of Observation" was released June 2021 on World Stage Press. He’s been published in various journals, publications, and anthologies (Voices from Leimert & Voices from Leimert Redux, Writers Resist, Drumming between Us, and Wide Awake). He’s the former Artistic Director at the World Stage Performance Gallery where he formerly facilitated the Anansi Writers Workshop. He is a community activist and has worked with youth for over 25 years; he was an ordained minister and Youth Pastor in the Church of God in Christ. He hosted a cable television show and recorded a gospel rap cd called L.I.F.E (1985). He was the Poet’s Stage Coordinator for the Leimert Park Village Book Fair; and also the Annual Leimert Park Village African Art & Music Festival for three years (2012-2014). He has performed his poetry on television, radio (KJLH, KPFK), universities (USC, UCLA, Claremont, CSLB, Antioch, CS-Northridge, and others), cultural events & organizations (Black Arts Festival, CAAM), for the City & County of Los Angeles, across the U.S., and he regularly curates poetry events in Los Angeles.
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