Regina YC García
Retrograde
A sister-friend came to me today saying that she felt “off kilter,”
like the world was playing tricks—car wrecked, insurance not covering
all of what she wanted, what she needed for it to cover, having paid
consistently, faithfully, over these years. I told her, as we have
the same number of birthdays, mine before hers, that
“55 is a time! It’s a whole mess, Honey!”
we laughed
Then, I told her that it is surely “Mercury in retrograde”
and we laughed some more
Then yielding to our indoctrination…
“Naw, Girl!”
doubling over
steeped in religiosity
having been brought up in “The Word”
I sometimes forget that so much of the God of our Ancients is wrapped in stars
and winds and cleansing water and purging fires in the least rigid of ways, talking, moving
earth and skies, rescuing
even when we forget the promised power. We revert to westernized boxes of place destiny
fixed time
But God has the world in God’s hands, power flowing to and through
Of course, she then reminded me of the time that we had our brooms balanced upright in the
middle
of our kitchen floors, a test of magical prowess. She took hers down before I did…said it
“creeped her out.” It was a joke, and I loved to take them (jokes) far, but in truth, this
monument of my inherent power somehow made me feel more able… more free. It stayed…a long time
It was not removed before I said it could be. Nobody dared.
Its ever-standing presence lifted me, emboldened me, and reminded me
that there really was something in me…
Maybe like a too often smothered power
Science, magic, Black girls
God
DeEvolution: Class
Consider…
This ground
These skies
The mighty rolling waters
The small quiet streams
The towering trees
The lowly underbrush
Imagine…
What they have seen
What they have heard
What they have felt
Upon despair descending
Tensing in terror
Drowning in disbelief
Raising the alarm
Splintering earth
while whirling winds
Call the air as witness
Wonder…
How have we come to this?
What have we done to us?
To others?
Negating the wholeness
The many parts of our stories
Our truths
Remember…
The dismemberment
one from another
Removing and reordering
what was never meant to be
& never willing to know
that we, all of us,
were All shaped
in the beginning
from formless, colorless, borderless
mouthless breath
born down through time
Children of energy and grace
Crowned in flesh
Once glorious grass
Now…
Segmented
Useless
Murderous
Class
AfroCarolina Land, Sea, & Stew
We are land, sprawling soul, & skin
steeped in Carolina sand & soil
It has built us in the best of times
covered us in the worst
Our hearts beat telltale notes, we are
of this place, these banks–outer, inner, & beyond
We are water, fluid & flowing, shimmering…
sometimes rising as waves of knowing
showing the world that our depth is more
than deep; it is complex-water wailing, water
washing, water witnessing, singing through sounds
The sea, a birth canal that has spit us upon the shores
reminded us to breathe, to cry, but not to die
We are these– fed holy fish, tomato broth, bacon,
potatoes, asked by earth & ocean to trust, to believe,
to be made whole, misted & sanctified by the voices
of our people, this sand, & the tides that rock in & out
Regina YC García is an award-winning Poet, Language Artist, and English Professor from Greenville, NC. She is the 2021 1st place winner of the DAR American Heritage Poetry Award, a 2024 Pushcart Nominee, a 2021 and 2023 semifinalist for the NCLR James Applewhite Poetry Competition, and a Finalist in the Lit/South Awards. She has been published in a wide variety of journals, reviews and anthologies to include The South Florida Poetry Journal, The Elevation Review, Main Street Rag, Amistad, Kakalak, Black Joy Unbound, and many others. She has also contributed to documentaries and musical and literary arrangements to include the Sacred 9 Project (Tulane University) and an Emmy award winning episode of the PBS art show Muse. Her debut chapbook, The Firetalker's Daughter, was released in March 2023 by Finishing Line Press.
