Incessant - 3 Kwansaba
Takier George
I dread the moment my daughter cries
In anger at the fact that she
Is just like me—a blank woman
Wishing to become someone other than herself
Hating the veil that’s been passed down
Her dear twenties will paint me monster
My cursed sorrys will swell my mouth
I’ve seen it and felt it before
Lifted my hand to my mother’s face
Brush to cheek to mouth to brow
Yet no amount of color could hide
Her—the mother beneath the made monster
I deserve what comes to me, tenfold
My body will be full of sorrys
The first owed to my mother’s art
To the woman she is at night
When her bed is covered in colors
Fingers stained with pure joy and talent
The blank woman she became after me
Left behind, along with thought of others
I already mourn whoever I am now.
Takier George
Takier George is a full-time student at Howard University majoring in English (with a
concentration in creative writing) and a minor in tv and film production. She was a part of the D.C. Youth Slam team from 2019 to 2021. George has been published in the Sterling Notes Literary Journal, The Hilltop, The Amistad, the Roi Fainéant Literary Press, and the Sigma Tau Delta Howard Journal. George is the vice president of the Sterling Allen Brown English and the Editor-In-Chief of the Sterling Notes Literary Journal. She is currently working on her first chapbook.