My brief meeting with Danielle Legros Georges was filled with encouragement. As we spoke about the Caribbean literary canon and the erotic, I could tell she loved poetry with her core and wanted to infuse more beauty into the world with her work. We aligned in that way; our meeting stoked my own bravery to write more honestly about love, beauty, and desire, with a softness that not only is true to my poetic journey but is needed as respite in the current state of the world.
blessed are the Lovergirls
when the moon closes
her eye around the shroud
they are filled
with hunger. it is futile
to try to curtail the boon.
Whores are the ones
who escape the snare;
teach a man how to kiss
his Wife. he loses a part
of his body inside her.
they inherit the earth,
forevermore.
Note #888, ad infinitum
on the other side of your window,
the grass is tall. you ignore the call
at the door, chain your foot to the edge
of the bed. i am the lover
that exorcises your demons,
forces you to forget to be human.
and the grass grows. we are inside,
gasping for air, forgetting to eat
because our mouths are full. we know
that soon we will have to tend
to our Death, but for now, She
has forgotten us, and Time stares
through the looking glass, full of envy.
and the grass grows. in the distance,
a locking of the door.
In her work, Letitia Marie Pratt explores the peculiarity of living in a landscape laden with stories related to the divine feminine, healing, and inherited notions of the self. She holds an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently works as an associate curator at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.