AI Generated Image of a Black man wearing a light-colored shirt with a kinky afro, bearded face, and centered in front of a blurry inner-city background. Created with Canva.
Kazi enters the house and finds his two favorite girls in the kitchen. Kimya looks distraught. Kelsey is in tears.
*This. Must. Be. The. Day.* He thinks to himself.
“She knows?”
“She does.”
“Everything?!”
Kimya breathes out an exasperated breath, shifts in the chair, and sighs before responding. “Yes . . . Yes, Kazi. Everything.”
Kazi looks over in Kelsey’s direction and hangs his head solemnly. What more can he do but provide a safe space for Kelsey at this moment?
“Come here, Kels. Come here, baby girl. I got you. I always got you.”
1. A Poem for Eustace R. Conway, IV created with Canva by Tremaine L. Loadholt
trapped trauma for the mountain man
a poem for Eustace R. Conway, IV
boy blue’d and black-hearted made by a stubborn man found himself peacekeeper of the wild.
so sick of torture and pinged for disobedience, he trekked the world outside his father’s home and made love to the Carolina forests.
with nature as his mistress, there was no place too remote for this young man trapped in his traumatic past struggling to build a present.
he had loves who loved him but he didn’t understand the rules of falling in love, and suffered heartbreaking consequences, instead.
when fame found him and plastered his noble features on nationwide television, he remained humble. journalists, writers, and nosy women wanted a piece of Boone-infused pie.
his father’s namesake and his mother’s favorite, he managed to live up to his expectations more than anyone else’s.
and even I, in my soon-to-be mid-40s, can appreciate the pain of childhood trauma when it shapes and molds a man into one who is probably five times better than his father.
1. I am enjoying the book I’m currently reading so much and the subject/character of interest, Eustace R. Conway, IV, that I was moved to write a poem about him.
My reading of the book led me to a few Google searches about him, and he’s really an incredible human being! I had no idea he was one of the most influential and liked characters of the no-longer-running show, Mountain Men on The History Channel.
Apparently, he’s uber sexy and intriguing to a lot of his fans and the envy of many men longing to learn more about mountain living and gaining sustainability in remote areas among nature.
2. Leonard Albert Kravitz, lovingly known as Lenny Kravitz, is a singer, songwriter, actor, father, and all-around beautiful human being.
He has had many musical hits and a signature, distinctive sound.
When you hear Lenny Kravitz, you know it’s him.
Here’s a YouTube video of my all-time favorite song by him: “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over”. Enjoy!
I watched Mommy Cook Though I cooked With Grandmother
With Grandmother I learned To pluck chickens Peel carrots Turn chittlins inside out Scrub pig feet
With Mommy I watched leftovers for stew Or vegetable soup Great northern beans Mixed collards turnips and mustard greens Garlic cloves Bay Leaves Very beautifully green Stiff so fresh With just a pinch of salt Not everything together All the time but all the time Keeping everything
I make my own Frontier soup in a crock pot I make my own ice cream with a pinch of salt And everything else With garlic But fresh Bay Leaves Are only for very special Ox Tails
1. Bay Leaves, a poignant and vivid poem by the incomparable Nikki Giovanni. Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr. is alive and well and is 80 years old. She is an activist, writer, creator, poet, a lover of her people, and wishes to see humanity at its best.
Bay Leaves is a favorite poem of mine by her.
2. Mitch Albom quote. Mitch Albom is one of my favorite authors. I was introduced to his work as a junior in college for my Psychology, Death & Dying class.
We were tasked with reading Tuesdays with Morrie and writing a 5-page paper regarding the effects of the book on us throughout reading it.
I fell in love with this book. I was 20 years old and experienced so many emotions while reading it. I still have an incredible memory of each event documented in the book. However, I’ve read it several times since then, too.
If you haven’t done so, do yourself a favor and give this one a bit of your time.
I own four of Mitch’s books and they all deal with death, grief, dying, and adjusting to life after loss in some way. He is truly a genius in this subject.
Breaking things down professionally and respectfully.
When we are money-hungry and crave power over humans’ actual existence and well-being, many countries suffer; many people suffer. Death knocks on multiple doors and takes its reward.
Google Sudan. Research the recent occurrences in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Look up the history of Haiti. Your mind will be blown away.
Greed breeds power. Power breeds evil. Evil breeds the death of many to get back to greed.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has imposed sanctions on 37 Russian groups and 108 people including a former prime minister and a former education minister and said he aimed to fight wartime abductions of children from Ukraine and other “Russian terror”.
Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that the armed forces shot down 29 of 38 drones in an overnight raid. More than 400 towns and villages in the south, south-east and north of the country were affected by the drone attacks, including an oil refinery that was hit in Odesa.
Ukrainian troops are working to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnipro River, the military has said, a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the country’s partially occupied Kherson region.
I’m extremely over the overlord of Russia and his expectancies and over-elitist actions and presence, and he needs to be taken down several pegs.
It’s been nearly two years. I’ve one thing to say to him and any minions at his disposal, “Ain’t y’all tired yet?!”
Where is peace when you need it? Where is justice when it’s overdue? And why must so many fight to obtain both?!Why–because they’re tired, too. Doing right really isn’t hard.
Ed tossed the remote control to the far right end of the couch after flipping channels for the twentieth time. He slid back in his reclining massage chair, pressed the button to activate the slow pulse on his lumbar spine, and sank into the peacefulness of the night.
Sadie had been gone since Tuesday, and it was Friday. She decided to visit her big sister, Sweetie. She hadn’t seen her in four years.
The WWE’s intro sounded throughout the entire living room. He blinked his eyes a few times to keep from falling asleep. Although he never missed an episode, he struggled tonight to stay awake.
Working the second shift at the power plant was starting to wear on his middle-aged bones. Years ago, he could pull a double, parade around town until 3 in the morning, and still wake up to get another day going at work.
Those days are long gone now. Everything hurts. Even his fingernails. But money’s got to be made.
He silently berated himself for tossing the remote to the far right of the couch. The chair had gotten comfortable and he didn’t want to get up.
He smacked his weary lips, placed two fingers in his mouth, and whistled for his oldest child to come downstairs.
The young one appeared; doe-eyed and slightly aggravated.
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Edward Sloane Parker, Jr., reach on over there on that couch and get your daddy the remote control, will you.”
It wasn’t so much a question as it was a statement — a cool command. Ed, Jr. shuffled past his dad, leaned over hastily, scooped up the remote, and tossed it in his dad’s lap.
“That it?”
“Yeah, son. That’ll do me.”
The night air crept into the cracks of their old Victorian home, Ed settled into the grip of the reclining massage chair, pressed the volume up button on the remote, and closed his eyes.
“I’ll just rest them for a few. I won’t even miss the main event,” he whispered to the thin air.
When Ed woke up, the sun was beaming down on his beady eyes and the kids were racing downstairs to the kitchen to make breakfast.
He missed the main event. He missed the whole damn show.
A Cornered Gurl 
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