Who am I 

Fumbling around in the dark Fighting faceless monsters  Collecting scars like badges That tells stories of repeated lessons  Or flawless victories  Desperately trying to find light To be able to see what battles are ahead  The pressure of wanting to be seen, heard and understood  Without trails and obstacles in place  Building character by learning…

God

The innocent me Seeks divine intelligence  To express myself 

Roses are red, water is cleansing

She walked along the riverbank  Heart drenched with sorrow  Eyes searching for a savior  Mind wandering through flashing life memories  She wore white for this occasion  As if she were arriving for a baptism  Only she was preparing for her ending  She was over it  This thing called the human experience  The more she thought…

My truth, your truth, whose truth?

The truth will set you free or hold others in captivity. Hear me out. We journey through life experiencing all of these beautiful lessons. I say beautiful because each experience is a lesson that leads to our expansion. That growth and expansion could be mental, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual. Nonetheless, growth is beautiful to experience,…

Event Announcement + Four Poems

Before the final poems that I’ll be posting in my tenure as the Racine Writer-in-Residence, I want to say thank you to all the readers who have visited over the past six months. I would also like to invite everyone to attend the Open Mic & Performance Showcase I’ll be hosting as my community project…

Faustian Sentences p. 3

we put together
thoughts
like good TV
to pull quick
against a profile
of guilt at
every detail

The Transverberation of Frida Kahlo

by Jessie Lynn McMains Woman with dark hair full of flowers. Woman wrapped in thorns and vines. Woman draped in bangles, necklaces, earrings of jade and silver. Woman with magenta lips; with eyebrow perched above her knowing eyes like a blackbird, singing. Woman surrounded by dogs, monkeys, deer. Chicana. Communist. Rebel. I don’t give a…

Let’s Be Bad

by Jessie Lynn McMains Sometimes, I want to do bad things. This is not a confession of nefarious plots or dirty thoughts. Maybe I should rephrase it. Sometimes, I want to allow myself to be bad at things. I want to let myself make crappy stuff. I want to let myself just make the absolute…

Why Bother? (we set out to change the world & ended up just changing ourselves)

by Jessie Lynn McMains There’s a scene towards the end of the film Velvet Goldmine, when Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) says to Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale): “We set out to change the world, and ended up just changing ourselves.” “What’s wrong with that?” Arthur asks. “Nothing,” Curt replies, “If you don’t look at the world.”…