Zyen Smoot

I Fantasize

I fantasize, dreamy desires of warmth

I fantasize, darks hands danced danced

and pranced with me

In a living room with open doors

I fantasize, love as sweet as the smell of your lotion

Smooth and leaving a shine so intoxicating

I fantasize, about how good it is

i fantasize

4C Hair

Diaspora roots

Mirror bushes, mirror trees

Brown like bark, like skin

4c hair

“You Are My Dream”

There is something that I would like to say. Something that desires me to give greetings of gratitude.

Today I realized how beautiful I was after looking at a locked-down mirror. With fresh eye boogers and the silkiest bonnet, my sister could find on Amazon I finally saw what others desired in me. Some fantasized, of course, of what they could do with me surrounded by these pink walls.

And yearly yearnings of random messages from frustrating flings folding at the sight of me, I decided to entertain the thought of being with each of them. A bachelorette in training for the next season of She’s Gotta Have It. Yet, before I finished admiring myself my nose circulated a familiar smell of a Dora The Explorer 3.99 lotion. A young girl with sticky fingers of insecurities stared at me.

She said,

you are

A Tribute to Myself

Turbans tied, circled sativa laced eyes

Manila moisturized against my skin

Diasporic southern-creole voices

Caught in the swirl of my hair growing up

Bounced and echoed my jewelry going down

Spiraled around my arms lifting forward

Smothered and lowered, graced Jazz melodies

Dangled with purple and green beads, I sang

Let my Blackness hold the warmth of the sun

Let the sun reflect the blue in my hue Let the

hue grow darker with the seasons Let the

seasons bring vibrant history Let the history

be my own story

Of a turban tied, sativa laced eyed

a tribute

HAMPTON RENAISSANCE

Zyen Smoot