Poetry Archive

Answering The Race Box (Early Training)

Photo by Donovan Arias on Unsplash

I unwrapped all of their crayons
so they could blend fat hazy
vibrant blotches or push precise
marks across newsprint pinned to an easel.

I put water color paint there too -
in spray bottles - next to thick strolling
tempra filled cups & wide thick bristled brushes
so every mark could be made with the full body.

The least of these masterpieces
we shredded into homemade confetti.
Glued them on milk cartons over the faces
of children America cares more about than
us. Called them Spirit Towers. Sometimes
they affixed pipe cleaner arms, ribbon, or buttons.  

A coloring book was their first demonstration. 
They ignored the demanding dense black lines.
It made a grown up quite cross.  But, well, I smiled,
all shades of transcendence are welcome in our world,
Wouldn’t you agree how important it is for children to learn?



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Filed under: Poetry Archive

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Christina Springer is an Alt.Black artist who uses text, performance, video and other visual expressions. Cave Canem shaped her voice. Her fourth collection of poetry, The Splooge Factory, was released by Frayed Edge Press in November 2018. Currently finishing its cross country exhibition is Futuristic Relics & Motherboards Sacred: a collection of 75 paintings, fabric, mixed media objects and texts from the museum of our Black utopian womanist future. Springer resides in Pittsburgh where she home educates her son.