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PAD Challenge Day 25: Flashback

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PAD Challenge Day 25: Write a memory poem. Flashback   May I hopscotch back into the 90s, where I was a black gardenia growing up  at 1606 Gardenia because this life, like Fayetteville's honeysuckles, was mesmerizing? My mother was living single. Though it was a different world, from where I came from,  I was still daddy's little girl. I was extra chubby, bashful and cute. My 4C hair was tied from the roots  with Goody's elastic ponytail balls,  plaited with barrettes to seal my tips. I was a Terrific, A+ kid with the  same opened heart and gap smile. A bookworm plus a book lover of Book It! My violin, Kenya and Twist 'N Style  Tiffany dolls were my bestfriends. Lisa Frank Diaries became a residence for my short stories, Haikus,  Limericks and ballads. I love to ride my purple, pink  and white bike in neon  L.A. Gear sneakers then hop  off and jump rope while counting  One Mississippi, two Mississippi . I was never good at Dou...
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PAD Challenge Day 24: 3 A.M:iPray

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PAD Challenge Day 24: Write a time of day poem. 3 A.M.: iPray Sometimes-at-times, iWake up at 3.A.M.  iHeard this was the devil's hour,  so iMake it a Godly hour.  One where, iFeel like  the Father or the Son  taps me on one of my shoulders  for me to awake and talk... iTalk about whatever may  wrestle with my spirit  Whatever may irritate my nervous system  Whatever iMay fear in anticipation... Sometimes-at-times, iJust lay in bed.  Thank God that iWas  able to rise into a new day,  survive another day of grief,  in a world saturated in  vile, unholiness, anger, greed, cruelty... Sometimes-at-times,  iMay stare into space, search from floor to ceiling,  looking for one of my Angels,  maybe a relative that visited before, and the sister-friend, iJust lost,  that I've yet to see... Sometimes-at-times,  iGet out of bed,  look out my bedroom window, for nothing at all. iNotice how peaceful ...
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PAD Challenge Day 23: The Color Purple

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PAD Challenge Day 23: Write a book poem. The Color Purple  When I walk by a field  of purple patches; stand or drive by a row  of dangling wisterias; Mother African Violets  gifted to me; I, too, pledge to  not piss God off. I bear in mind the women  I share blood with and  friendships watered to flower sisterhood. The passion God gave them  to harvest stories  unfortunately sowed like  Celie, Sophia, Shug,  Nettie and Squeak. I pray that one day, I, too, won't be the only  person that knows how  they caught a sight of beauty  in life after the acts of  the ungodly and ugly. D'ElegantOne 
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PAD Challenge Day 22 (Two-for-Tuesday): "Tell Me A Woman Can" and "Don't Tell Me You Don't See Color"

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PAD Challenge Day 22 (Two-for-Tuesday): Write a tell me and/or don't tell me poem. Tell Me A Woman Can  The future is female. We can't even sit  pretty quiet about it. We know boys will be boys  until they experience real Women. In sneakers or heels, we got balls to step on the  necks and backs of sexism; Put a chokehold on misogyny; break through the ceilings  before they crash and burn. We got aim. We got ambition. We got ammunition. For the big four E's Equality. Equity. Empowerment. Evolution . Don't Tell Me You Don't See Color Dear people that say  "I don't see color." Please tell me,  if you can, when you can,  what do you see  as soon as your eyes  glance over, rollover,  up and down, at me? I know you're not colorblind,  Or have a color deficiency- at least I like to think . So, tell me,  what do you see  with your own two  little pretty brown,  green, blue and gray eyes, when blinking at me? Am I p...
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PAD Challenge Day 21: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

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PAD Challenge Day 21: Take the phrase "(blank) Day". Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow  Yesterday, I remember all  of my thoughts of you. They were daydreams of what loving you would  Taste like...Sound like...Feel like... Today, I know... You are Tupelo honey in my Ruby moon hibiscus tea. The Rebirth Brass Band hugging my hips in a second line; And a sample of heaven down my spine.   Tomorrow, if your honey is depleted; Your music is hard of hearing; And your slice of heaven goes back to the sky; I know that I lived  beyond just a dream. D'ElegantOne 
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PAD Challenge Day 20: Resting in Peace

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PAD Challenge Day 20: Write a rest poem. Resting in Peace  Lately eyes been focusing on  resting in peace while living.  Vital as my vital signs,  I've been trying to out sleep  my personal computers and sleep numbers  I mean good,  down to the bones; Flesh healed and refreshed; Muscles relaxed without  muscle relaxers kind of rest. A whole rest without counting sheep by quarters, halves, eighth  or sixteenth like music sheets just to sleep. So much rest and peace  that I don't have to lie still in it  or be hush-hush about it. I can be a solid solitude or happily included by  wholly peaceful company.  I am favored,  not in people pleasing. I can feel sorrowful,  not sorry for you. Peaceful enough that  my no's even know better to be a no show to no shows. More peaceful at reaching out to others that know how to live in peace too. D'ElegantOne 
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PAD Challenge Day 19: Black Wall Streets of America

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PAD Challenge Day 19: Write a persona poem. Black Wall Streets of America   If I come back stronger as the founders  that found me, can I trust you to defend  me, every block by block... My neighborhoods...My businesses... The same black owned neighborhood  and blacked owned businesses  where you didn't have to wait for  or question if diversity was acceptable  because I was established F.U.B.U... You didn't have to be on  tenterhooks about inclusion. You didn't have to go  seeking and hunting down equity when basic  civil rights were obviously overdue. Because you had me... You had me when Jim Crow  was your number one public enemy. You had me through: The fall and rise of the Greenwood District  When I was metropolis as Bronzeville in Chi-town When I was the apple of your eye on  Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia  When I was sweet as Sweet Auburn in Atlanta An urban league as Hayti in Durham, North Carolina  W...
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