Practice
I’ve forgotten the threat of my black body, until I notice the cashier’s tattooed forearms. In his line for the second time, I watch the man with Aryan Pride
inked into his skin, pass a bag of Gala apples over the scanner. I live here now— tucked into a valley, guarded by conifers. I train myself to abide, my chest caging its wingbeat. Ahead, a woman places her white bread,
chicken breasts and Pepsi on the belt, lays a plastic bar
between us. The man’s plum polo shirt says Ted. I read
his cerulean eyes, approach smiling, ask about his day. He smiles warmly, calls me ma’am. My teacher speaks of duck meditation, how water fowl sit
atop roiling waves. I find breath, stay present with my stirring, in the lion’s den.
ISBN: 9781939728524; full-length poetry collection, 7x9" paperback
Publication Date: July 2022
Author: Rage
Location: Doha, Qatar & Richmond, VA
Distribution: Distributed by Diode Editions
Rage Hezekiah is a Cave Canem, Ragdale, and MacDowell Fellow who earned her MFA from Emerson College. She is a recipient of the Saint Botolph Emerging Artist Award and she serves as Interviews Editor at The Common. She is the author of Unslakable (Paper Nautilus Press, 2019) and Stray Harbor (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Rage’s poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, The Cincinnati Review, The Colorado Review, and many other journals and anthologies. You can find more of her work at ragehezekiah.com.
