Friday, July 12, 2013

Poem of the Week: Truth Thomas

Truth Thomas                            

Sunday Kind of Love 
  

Shayna reads the Word and takes
the story of that first miracle as
serious as unpaid electric bills in
winter--takes apostle's reports
of water changed to fiesta as a
personal challenge--a test of
matrimonial faith--wonders if
the trick works away from food--
tries it in the evening, when the
good deacon comes home drunk
again. She prayerfully points
what she hopes will be a beverage-
changing finger in the direction
of her storm when "Why isn't
my dinner ready bitch" drowns
out Smokie Norful singing "Jesus
is Love" and CoCo Brother Live
in the kitchen. After a while (she
will be heard to tell paramedics),
the belt buckle that forever shut
her shades, nearly felt as soft as

pillow rain.

 
-Truth Thomas 

Used by permission.  
 
Photo by: Melanie Henderson

Truth Thomas is a singer-songwriter and award-winning poet, born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in Washington, DC. He studied creative writing at Howard University under Dr. Tony Medina and earned his MFA in poetry at New England College. His collections include Party of Black, A Day of Presence, Bottle of Life, finalist for the People's Book Prize in London and Speak Water, winner of the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. His poems have appeared in over 100 publications, including The 100 Best African American Poems (edited by Nikki Giovanni), and been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He serves on the editorial boards of Tidal Basin Review and Little Patuxent Review, guest-editing the Social Justice issue for the latter, and is the founder of Cherry Castle Publishing. A former writer-in-residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo), he currently serves on the HoCoPoLitSo board.
 
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