person M. Carmen Lane, three poems

M. Carmen Lane (Tuscarora, Mohawk, African-American) is a two:spirit poet and cultural worker living in Kahyonha:ke (Cleveland, Ohio). Their poetry has been published in the Yellow Medicine Review, River Blood & Corn, and Red Ink Magazine. Carmen contributed to the Lambda Literary nominated anthology Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. Their first collection of poetry is Calling Out After Slaughter (GTK Press, 2015).

~

Road

arrogant
you are
not the
mother
they have
called in

using sacred
medicine
molesting
entry

for a
lesser
purpose

this baby
will not
change you

will not
offer
gratitude

none
of these
babies
have
saved
you

not from him
not from the
other him
not from
him too

walk.

~

White Teeth

when
the molar
was
removed

extra bone/ flesh
complicated
extraction

was
want to
leave

felt
pounding
in my
chest

kin to
an unexpected
death

is this how I would end?

alone
with two strangers
in my mouth

face swollen
no lover

they often
identify lost
remains through
teeth

density of
bone

Did she possess
all of her teeth?
had they long been
removed?

“What kind of human being
takes teeth from the bodies
of black men?” she asked.

a white person

I wrote this with a smile.

~

Post-Patriarchy Dessert

stab him
to death

sever
his
spine

disembowel
white rotted
guts of
an old/ not
ancient

manhood

burn
zie puffy
flesh

scorched

of a salty
phallacy

flush with
cowardice

~