The Exchange is the Weekly’s poetry corner, where a poem or piece of writing is presented with a prompt. Readers are welcome to respond to the prompt with original poems, and pieces may be featured in the next issue of the Weekly.
some coffee by C. Lofty Bolling
Some coffee is sweet and others savory.
Determined to give more,
some coffee is black and some is black.
Some coffee is coffee and some coffee is black.
A flower vase doesn’t grow with the flowers and that’s the secret of it all.
The side effect, what affects the side profile affects the whole silhouette.
What affects the outside of the bean affects the sugar inside.
The vessel the coffee sits in validates the timeliness and approximates its importance appropriately, i’ve rehearsed it so religiously I find no dissatisfaction in its eventual disappearance. the coffee table too. suddenly no coffee nor coffee table
I consumed them both to bone leaving their vessels.
Some coffee is sweet and some is savory,
Determined to give more/
Some coffee go and some coffee come.
Some coffee is alive and some coffee is coffee.
I’m over-determined by paisley prints and jumping flowers on chairs.
I am over determined by chrysanthemums and rose bushes full of thorns,
throne rooms surrounded by greenery and shrubs, seraphs cloaked in weathered mercury,
kief and iron residue on the lips on plant vases.
white china and blue denim hold coffee stains
I’m waiting in line.
Prompt:
“Personify your favorite comfort foods or drinks and compare them to people you are close to.” This prompt was inspired by and curated with C. Lofty Bolling.
This could be a poem, journal entry, or a stream-of-consciousness piece. Submissions could be new or formerly written pieces.
Submissions can be sent to bit.ly/ssw-exchange or via email to chima.ikoro@southsideweekly.com
Featured below is a reader response to a previous prompt. The last poem and prompt can be found here.
Bright Boy by Cortez Stewart
What allows you to see at night the Christmas decorations and street lamps in your neighborhood? Cuz we got youngins lighting up Our blocks.
so I hop on tracks to get away, with no light at the end of the tunnel so no plight when you fold if you stumble, your never to dream so big but the wic on my candle burns for fantasy. can’t be snuffed out won’t become content for me this ray of hope pulls me through trials and tribulations away from darkness and its fixations although I’ve been every connotation of both
The bright kid “u a star you gone make it far” “show em who u are” bright boy how you get like that bright boy why talk like that bright boy why you talk. so. bright, boy.
youngins that will smith ya.
But they ain’t acting on bright boy no flashes for your entrance they take our light and put them In prisons
cuz how can you shine in a black hole we take our light and put them through prisms reflecting refracting on set goals being told
Not to waste time being shown
everybody hates Chris until he let it shine
that’s what will was banned for how could
He be like that when these other stars are so “pure” Being dimmed by constructs that can’t take the heat that’s why Jasmine was up in the stars being shown a whole new world singing songs but Tiana is of course she happy staying a frog
But if we make any buzz about it it’ll be light years before another one of us receive any shine
And they know that we know
So why fight it bright boy a bunch of strays of rays can’t compete with the sun bright boy
So enjoy the show, eat the chips watch your
Moment in the sun fore you get eclipsed
bright boy
Tell’em we are the screens, bulbs and the sun and we burn bright boy
Cortez is Totally Genius!