Bennett College is a small, private, historically Black liberal arts college for women. The College offers women an education conducive to excellence in scholarly pursuits; preparation for leadership roles in the workplace, society, and the world; and life-long learning in a technologically advanced, complex global society. As a United Methodist Church-related institution, Bennett College promotes morally grounded maturation, intellectual honesty, purposeful public service, and responsible civic action.

Bennu

A Literary Journal

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Bennett College for Women
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-2549-6

Chapter One

I Say I Am

I say I am music
For the rhythms move me
The lyrics, they are the air that I breathe
I say I am like Dr. King
For I too have a dream
But it's for black people to live together in peace
I say I am like the mute, unable to speak
For my thoughts are better off read than said
I say I am like the Virgin Mary
Since it will only be by the Holy Spirit that I conceive
Don't get me wrong, I do love children
It's just not my job to bear them
Instead I tend to nurture those already here
Who no one seems to want
So like Michael Jackson, I'll be there
I claim to be like Cinderella
Except I am already a Queen waiting for my King
To one day come and rescue me
So what if I live my life like a fairy tale
Just call me Sleeping Beauty
Since I'm walking through life with my eyes closed anyway
Dreaming every night and all day
I say I am like a leaf on a tree
Just being until the time is up for me
Then I will rest and let my works speak for me
And my tombstone simply states
I AM ME

Queen


Fresh Woman

Fresh woman
Confused in the dark
A little black girl so lost
Views still black and white

Dream of the unknown
Lying beyond the limits
Rushing from the breasts

Green as a string bean
Pretending to be all grown
Eyes so wide and long

Eager to be free
Blinded by the glare of lights
Still full speed ahead

Cannot stop so fast
Too close now she can't pull back
She hits the mirage wall HARD

Konica Haynes


Defining Hope

There are two Shadows of leadership
In this black stillness, destiny is to fade the light
They ease slowly and surely toward dignity
In Long stretched wheels—
Long stretched wheels that glide up capitol hills to fight—
To fight a battle that seems to have already been won
But it is by this challenger who knows the battle has just begun
Change and hope shiver the bones to breathe desire
Hands to foreheads salute as we wait to be inspired
First Ladies arrive and it's their strength their men survive
Survive the testing times

There is a flag that waves cheerfully
Horns play in patriotic symphonies that shower
Drums roll silent for victories are in the hour
Unity vision and greatness are echoed through a pledge of power
It is these cannons that against the odds are raised
Raised from purpose, faith and duties connected to a face
Heritage of falling heroes and guardians of liberty we no longer see
Moments of a defining generation whose movement generated and
started with me

There were frozen smiles of prosperity on that cold but memorable day
Inclusion not exclusion is what must pave our way
Keepers of legacy unbroken in no need of restraint
As our President speaks of the future we no longer imply the word can't
Although it began with the persistence of a man
We are a nation, together, in efforts we stand
Hand in Hand
Our country
Our land
Torn are the Shackles
Because
YES WE CAN

Nicole Miller

About Roses

Her father said, "Give her one Rose, one perfect Rose each year
to mark this day."
Her lover said, "A Rose, a perfect Rose! Roses are not bread or earth or
sustenance—and one should not make promises that one can't keep."
Yet out of the bread and sustenance came bushes and bushes of Roses.
Which only goes to show
Fathers can't know everything
Not even when it comes to love.

Ruth Lucier


Marching To The Dream

One day I met a man holding up a sign.
Cold and lonely he was wrapped in a blanket
Looked at me and started crying,
"Tell me how can I survive tomorrow
If I can't get through today?
I lost my job I worked my whole life
and my savings are spent away."
I told him, "My brother walk with me
and together we will march
And spread Martin Luther King's dream through the slums of the parks.
We will get through this time together
Nobody can survive alone.
Let's end poverty forever and make our nation a home."

One day I saw a lady crying on the street.
She looked scared and helpless
Terrified she cried to me,
"Tell me how can I survive tomorrow
If I can't get through today?
No friends, no family, no love
Alone in the world with AIDS."
I looked at her and said, "My sister walk with me
And together we will march
And spread Martin Luther King's dream through the slums of the parks.
We will get through this time together
Nobody can survive alone.
Let's care for the sick forever and make our nation a home."

One day I met a young boy standing on the corner.
Selling drugs to support his family
To take care of himself and his mother.
He said, "Tell me how can I survive tomorrow
If I can't get through today?
I don't have an education, or degree
And the rent is two months late."
I told him," Young fellow walk with me
And together we will march
And spread Martin Luther King's dream through the slums of the parks.
We will get though this time together
Nobody can survive alone.
Let's end violence and drugs on every corner forever and make our
nation a home."

And side by side we all marched on.
Through the slums, ghettos, and hoods.
Transforming ourselves into kings and queens
Until everyone understood;
That when our sisters are dying
So are we.
When a child is hungry
We all starve.
And when one man suffers pain and sickness
America loses the DREAM.
So next time you see a hopeless man struggling to survive
Tell him, say to him, "My brother you are not alone," and march by
his side.

Tiara Miller


Untitled

Separation between fingertips and loose smiles
As the wind blows my hair over my shoulder, I look back
Back to where the smell is familiar and where the touch
comforts my soul
Back to where the acceptance is honest in the grips truth,
dearest now holds
Proud as the trees towering as the leaves take their route to coast
Coast to a balance of understanding

Separation between fingertips and loose smiles
Ease of temperature in stress fires
Change in landmarks but acknowledgement of desire
Origin is longed for, on the tears of rain that drops everclear
But as the nature exists to suggest here is ever near

Separation between fingertips and loose smiles
Knowing worth is worthwhile
Sacrifice, red wine that is swished lightly round closed lips
Ever so sweet, lightly kissed, missed and therefore savored
Savored for blind eyes see slightly and as time exists
Existence past the evident through the present and toward the sky

Separation between fingertips and loose smiles
Conforms me to build independents dams worldwide
Dams tornados fan as the walls from pressure expand
Need for the essence to soothe once again greatly in spirit
Uplift it, in connection of ecosystems abroad
Closer for short—Closer is never too little charge

Separation between fingertips and loose smiles
Desolate islands of finance and luxury
Small amounts of freelance and maintenance in markets too steep
As pocket of lint shower in spent shallows to keep
Education of wisdom rich is meant for pens to seek
Even as the heart quivers and shivers from cold holidays that peek

Forced to live without blood forbid for love is hid far away
Separation between fingertips and loose smiles
Longing for home for little stay

Nicole Miller


Bush Tea

A sprig of sage and lavender
To compliment the thyme.
Perhaps some leaves of eucalypt
And flowers from that vine.

"Too bitter!" cries my brother and
Arising from the pot,
Among the trees, he finds some leaves,
And adds them with a slop.

After much deliberation
We gather round the stew.
So much fun, but the time has come
To taste our bush tea brew.

The gum nuts are old and chewy,
The wattle somewhat sweet.
The bottle brush is rather bland,
But the berries are a treat.

Then suddenly father finds us,
Inhales our brew and cries,
"You cannot have drunk this poison?"
We shake our heads and lie.

"These plants are not for playing"
He pours it on the grass.
Then alone we're left to ponder
How much longer would we last.

After a day of fearing death,
And one long, sleepless night.
It appeared we'd survived the poison,
But only just the fright.

Lee Todhunter


Whispers

Witness
Witness—we met that first time in the stillness
of an early morning ride
around the lake.

Our eyes widened slightly as our hearts met in mutual recognition.

We weren't strangers then nor were we later when we met again
for the second time
in the jostling bustle of a midday, midweek
cable car ride.

And when we at last met for the third and final time—
hands brushed lightly in accidental concert

That last meeting
our beginning

Witness.

1 January 2007

Witness—2

Your backward, furtive glances
gave lie to the bravado of your
walk,

You swagger confident in body
Yet behind the face you presented to us
the stench of your fear

Bare truth
And you tremble in the clear cold rain.
A steady streaming shower
to wash away
the dank odor
of your
disappointment.

2 January 2007
Whispers

Crisp and clear and clean
Sharp and pungent
A forest glen of nettled pine
Shadowed light play
Illuminates and obscures.

It is here
in the stillness
the quiet
the calm
that healing is realized

Whispers
from the far off cry of a bird.... unidentified
a forest sound ...
at one with the sequoias bringing majesty by their presence.

Here.
Whispers.... Witness.

2 January 2007

v.a. Johnson


Desperation

Uninspired by the dark
Given a shimmer, her pantyhose laddered the night.
Even the button moonlight was possessively bright.
She asked him to come back
She begged him to bring it back
She'd stretch for a dollar to make it two
Caught between the clatters of the ballroom chatters

Deciding her hips would be used
Her half empty rouge unevenly smeared
Un-flattered by her quivering smile
She lit a cigarette and pretended he wasn't around.

Nezile Mthembu


Soul Travel

If I close my eyes
I can see my mother—
a wildflower wearing brilliant blues and violets
dancing underneath the rising desert sun to the
clang-clang of imagined chains

breaking

Like the sun baking her blistered feet,
I can feel the heat of his breath on my
body striped with brilliant blues and violets
feet aching to fly to freedom or
walk across water like the Ibos

rejoicing

I can smell the rotten tobacco on his breath
Whispering, "Bertha. Bertha. Bertha."
Like the plaintive plea of the owl
"Who? Who? Who?"
as my weary womb leaks red and brown,

rotting

I can taste the iridescent snow
sullied by the red Georgia clay
branding my forehead and filling my nose
like the ice-cold fire
in his loins as he pillages pagan treasures

burning

But, if I close my eyes
I can see my mother,
and we are dancing
underneath the dying desert sun to
the clang-clang of chains
breaking

breaking

Sheila Cooper


Antipode

How would I walk
In the center of the earth?
With down being up and up
The other way around,
Would the blood rush
To my head thunderous,
Deafening,
As gravity—
The mind's descent forever?
Or
Would I clamber down the daemon's limb,
Clinging hope,
To reach that other side,
My antipode?

Robert W. Williams
###

? Musings penned after reading Dante's Divine Comedy I: Hell.


Stars Immigrate

Aligned waiting to enter
Stars migrate to meet the sun
to have its portion of Shine.
Shifting galaxies means no harm.
The Early Star was captured before it had risen.
Shackle and steal 'em.

Disperse the clouds.
Those have come too far.
Stars don't cross when full moon shines bright.
They flicker waiting in the gated night.
They huddle round the winter until its dead end comes.

Nezile Mthembu


Standing Tall In Quicksand

I am fortitude
I am woman
I stop traffic on green lights
And I-
I stand tall and fierce in quicksand!
I stand tall and fierce in quicksand!

It will take more than mountains of hardship to move my divine destiny
More than unforgivable troubling seas to submerge
my forward moving energy
Life challenges don't offend me ... and scare me none!
As a matter of fact-I boldly invite challenge to sit at the head of my
dinner table!
I am fortitude
I am woman
I stand tall and fierce in quicksand!

My full lips-typically known to stir things up when they part-smile
ever so modestly in the face of struggle.
See, I hold the secret of many fine women ...
Blessed with freedom warriors in my blood
I am highly favored and highly envied
The sun shines as soon as I rise
And the moon kisses my forehead ever so tenderly-
each and every time I lay my head to rest!
I am fortitude

I am woman
I stand tall and fierce in quicksand!

Not even a recession can steal my progression
I move with the greatest of ease in any direction
I own every platform that steadies my stance
And every path that embraces my journey
Cut from the finest cloth.... beauty is in my bloodline!
I may be nothing to you but to me ... I am everything!
I am fortitude
I am woman
I stop traffic on green lights
And I-
I stand tall and fierce in quicksand!

Platinum blonde
Permed or un-permed
Nappy or pressed
Weaved or loced
Twisted or braided
Low cut fade or bald
Salad eating or fried pork chops on hot sauce drenched bread
My existence is not an accident or a coincidence ...
My existence alone is a movement!
I am fortitude
I am woman
I stop traffic on green lights
And I
I stand tall and fierce in quicksand!

Lori Ann Walton

Terminology Of The Sword

Poker face shows, ... NO
Matter what expression
You cannot hide that at the end of the day, the sun is still setting

And at the end of light, is dark
Everything comes to an end, no matter how well you performed your
part

Sword fighting in an endless battle
The sword penetrates the skin easily
I am not defeated, just drained
The beats are fading; I'm going insane

The salty sea water floods the brown dirt.
Too much to wipe away
Through all the rage, the sea continues to stay

My sword lies in the sea
It becomes my compass
I follow my sword to lead me out of the darkness
I am free

Teleesha Long-Price


The Truth

It was the month of Mayday, I think the end
You were invisible to my naked eyes
With your arrogant country slur, and cocky city swag
You were as persistent as I pretended to be shy

I remember that warm September night
You took off the professional attire
My heart was not prepared for the sight
It was a burning inferno of fire

You opened up my eyes to who I can be
Becoming drunk with your intoxicating knowledge of life, especially
when you speak so passionately about making me your wife
Still my closet of demons continues to haunt me
I know you want me there, and I want to be there with you
But the truth of the matter is that my son's father
and I aren't quite through

Konica Haynes


How Can This Be?

How can this be happening to me?
What did I do to make what was old new?
To feel what I thought was buried deep
Down in the sand
It came out of nowhere
Just to let me know
I do care.
How can this be happening to me?
Without a kiss, without a touch
How is it that I care so much?
Is it because it is so genuine and so pure
That makes me want you even more?
I don't know what to do,
All I know is that I care for you
It just amazes me
How can this be
Happening to me
All I want to do is take care of you.

Diana R. Jones


Untitled

You see I walk around with so many burdens
Yet, my shoulders aren't broad enough
I have a heavy heart & enough tears to flood the world
Too many headaches to count
Too many worries to share
So many thoughts-can't speak them all
Concerns & Doubts
Pain & suffering
Regret & Confusion
Yet, my shoulders aren't broad enough
Too young they say
Too blessed to be stressed I've heard before
Why worry if you pray and why pray if you'll worry
True
But it doesn't take the pain away
It doesn't fill the void
It doesn't make it all better
It's still the same
My lashes are still wet
My mind still wonders
My heart still yearns
My alter ego still cries out

Yet, my shoulders aren't broad enough
I'm carrying around the weight of the world
But hey, doesn't anyone realize that I'm only 5'4 &fra12;
110 pounds
Slim & slender
Just not capable to hold it all
Doesn't anyone see?
Does anyone care?
It hurts
But I'm tired
And my shoulders just aren't broad enough
So guess what
I don't want anymore
You can have it!

Tatiana Walker

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Bennu Copyright © 2012 by Bennett College for Women. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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