there
Jasmine Elizabeth Smith | Poetry
is a woman,
a negotiation of space—
the red line
of vitals
now partitioned.
is she tired
the intake,
for an entire house,
her hands, make-shift, wash
negotiate the lint of cobwebs.
she is kept inside.
a house in ruin.
an entire house within her chest
shingles, banisters,
double paned &
the smallest of spaces.
of overcompensation?
her breath
eighty lungs. every-day
the windows—
& the door, bolted, makes sure
that strangers inside of her are fed.
watch now how she walks away.
Jasmine Elizabeth Smith's site.
Jasmine Elizabeth Smith (she/her) is a Black poet and educator from Oklahoma who is invested in the diaspora of Black Americans in various historical contexts and eras. She is the winner of the 2020 Georgia Poetry Prize and is the author of the poetry collection South Flight (University of Georgia Press, 2022). She is Cave Canem and BEI fellow, and her work has been featured in Poetry, World Literature Today, and LA Review of Books, among others. She currently teaches and resides in Seattle, Washington.