Totality of my Blackness 

                    For Lawrence 

My name is Natisha Ryan

And I swallowed the drunken half moon 

that bled in the totality of my Blackness

She sang in a nude silhouette

Above Mozambique for a Zulu Priest 

I was a robed Christian

His brains were shot out in Amsterdam

Africa!

An unhoused Black girl in 5th grade is given an

award for scholastic achievement

She was dark skinned in glasses and cornrows

Her family scrambled for nourishment

Civil liberties! 

The sun rises above Mesopotamia

A Black woman dressed herself with the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers 

She was robed as Ebony a gift from Inanna dripped in gold spoke

 other languages 

Blossoms pour forth from a scribe

The city slickers cross a toll bridge to graffiti tag a train 

Glittering stars fall

Across Black Zambia 

I can see the homeland

My imaginary husband left me standing at the altar 

In Brazil fostering a poor Black woman’s dream

The walls of Yemaya’s mansion stand tall

The naiads slept on black lotuses 

Used to hide in the West Indies

Beauty’s mask was stolen by the

Crudest kleptomaniacs known as the Bronze age freaks that chirped loud

I dressed my urban hut with dried eucalyptus plants and bought 

Some gel activator

My love was a black tie foreign double agent 

I ran with forbidden centaurs with a shrouded Neso 

My Blackness became drunk 

I exited a Black pantomime affair 

My totality of Blackness was like the ocean waves 

By Tiffany Haty

February 10th, 2025

Salome's mansion
Outre song of blue Jordan
House of Butterflies

By Tiffany Haty

The Swirling Tutu

The Swirling Tutu The New Girl was taking a bath World Politics was steeped in an exotic night jasmine scent Siamese twins are dancing on the ruins of the dilapidated world stage I am Black Lyra Then there was the New Boy In the late afternoon, he held an open bible set aflame Now Claudius is dead Religion walked out on me wearing a suit and tie and I still believe in an empty Jesus in confusion The dystopian moon is in its crescent phase A homeless drunk is singing pissing on a crumpled aluminum can A Black man suddenly yells, "Your mama's a trick!" at his television set My madness is symphonic and crawling I was lost amongst rows of sphinxes He will not find his black mistress The sun shines upon the face of Egypt The air is thick with smoke at the Temple of Thoth They murdered the left side of my brain locking me up in a monkey cage Liars of Iron Age and geometric planes disintegrate thought A quiet girl with a widow's peak flirts with cinema The 24th century ballerina was mixed with a Black and Romanian quatrain danced on a grave in a swirling tutu is grown Sunlight poured into the mausoleum and lit up her pale brown skin during the summer months Her high ponytail was raven-colored and bounced as she moved in the dream of the fallen Queen of Luxembourg By Tiffany Haty

Soldier in a play
I am a foreign princess
Stop fighting me Todd

By Tiffany Haty

"Poor Blacks: I Said My Name was Talitha"

 

                                                                                 

                         

Don't forget about the poor Blacks 

For I am a Poor Black

Jealousy swallowed our country home and ate through her jailed heart 

I was broken into prisms

Liquid eyes follow me

The fog is lifting. 

Don't forget about the poor Blacks 

For I am a poor Black Sister 

To the sold out Blacks

To the high yellow Blacks 

To the Blacks that are passing

To the dark-skinned Blacks

For the Blacks who are crazy, Bartholomew 

To the educated Blacks 

For the inequality of Blacks 

Don't forget you are Black

Fish play backgammon on Tuesdays 

While Queens die to take a milk bath

Murderer!

Don't forget about the poor Blacks 

For I am a.poor Black 

The sun expressed itself in fated charades, as it danced with a pauper through clouds

Wolves were gray and were still Wolves 

Eyes blurred color lines from intoxication peaking

A sticky blue lollipop broke off in her mouth and her name was Chelsea

Don't forget about the poor Blacks 

For I am a poor Black who was put out of mind

I attended a funeral when I was 49

I now  lament in a requiem

Eyes are bloodshot at 3am in a rainshower and I was left to chance in an interracial family fighting off teenage pregnancy on Lakeview Avenue South 

Come to the Lord

I loved every one of you that died 

Don't forget the poor Blacks for I am a poor Black 

Poor on 3rd

Poor.on Seneca 

Kneel before the Lord

Pray

By Tiffany Haty 

April 17th, 2024

Orbit to Miranda

"Orbit to Miranda"

Twist the patterns
I have sipped tea over many moons
I see eyes
Lands beckon from a crocodile god
My Black American Grandfather was a serviceman for the bleak contingency
I'm learning the Swahili tongue while I forward emails to Mombasa
Orbit to Miranda's nunnery in Brazil lands on Uranus' star
I am 19 confessing my sins to a soldier fighting a war
I'm off work at 5:00
I was a poor Black woman of nobility in a tailored suit who was pauperized by goats riding the city bus when I worked at a desk up in the blue sky of downtown Seattle in the Pacific Northwest 

My hair was a black espresso color and it was processed, and it blew dramatically in the soft wind while I lit my cigarette in the rain my damn self nothing but 22 
He wanted to rape while those goats ascend a mountain 
Loose sound bites play back of Lottie's full lips she was sequined in black was sworn in by a dragon
A streaker is running loose in the park
The sun dances across the sky as I recite the beatitude of a poor lunatic
I was exiled to Oberon
Heaven is ancient Mrs. Brooks
Dream

By Tiffany Haty

 winds run through the west 

Your crown of pearls lost in fog 

gray seaside villages

By Tiffany Haty

8-15-20