M

Mo(u)rning on the River

by Willonee Simone

Double-edged fire forever desires to burn and
yearns to lead the lost to hope.
Starting with you,
beginning with the sun in your veins and
alchemy in your identity and
the winds of your heart.
Divine design of duality
create time-worn pathways
revealing all versions of you,
morphed into a phoenix &
armored in star-kissed faith.
Storms formed from your power
crackle further than ever anticipated &
feed the rolling thunder in your spine
to the souls of those who sing Your glory
from river deep to mountain high.
Lioness under your flesh and
down your throat, fierce protectress of
the will and way of woman,
You make it clear only a palmful of souls know
how to be both stronger than the wind and
the sound of saving grace.
But You, goddess of ever-burning Rock n’ Roll flame and
swift spirit, deserve every inch of softness offered,
every point of protection presented,
every ounce of justice weighed in Your favor.
From one realm to the next, may Your essence
forever sizzle and soar.
Because whether You believed or not,
despite the world not consistently
admitting nor deserving it,
You were always the hero we needed.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Willonee Simone

Willonee Simone earned her MFA in Writing at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics of Naropa University. The foundation for her love of writing and literature was paved at an early age and blossomed during her teenage years through the kind of tortured freedom that only the ostracism & funk-weirdness of being an African-American Gemini mystic can grant a person. Her work has been featured in Raven Chronicles, Buddy--A Lit Zine, BEATS Poetry Periodical, Boulder Weekly, Outsider Poetry, SurVision Magazine, Reject Press, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Visitant Magazine, S/tick Magazine, Petrichor Magazine, and work in the forthcoming publication Folklorist with HarperCollins.