Like T’challa in the realm with ancestors
The wind as their embrace
Painting for hours on end
Being intentional about not looking at the clock during me time as
creativity comes to me through all avenues of the brain from the gyri and sulci
Poetry flowing as fast as the Nile river
Sustaining grow, learning, maturing
And healing
Loving the land on which I coexist
Protecting life like the Anhk
Having qualities of the eye of Horus
Protected, healthy and full of restoration
Loving the trauma within that little girl inside of me
Aroma of sage and palo santo in the atmosphere
Affirmations, praying, mantras
Yoga beneath the solar rays as it kisses my gorgeous melanated skin
Self-assurance in it’s true form of a goddess
Being able to love a world even though it don’t love me back
Laughing at ignorance because individuals sound so discombobulated
Knowing I’m amazing even though the struggle
Protecting my peace
Channeling my energy for the positive
Having parties full of dancing, soca, dance hall, and Afro beats
Learning how to enjoy the silence and still
Silence the best sound in the world
Alissa Merritt is a young black woman writer and poet from Southeast Georgia. She was first introduced to poetry in the second grade, through the works of Langston Hughes — quickly becoming her first love. After experiencing a concussion injury through cheerleading her junior year of high school, Merritt rediscovered her passion for the art form. Her words helped her to experience a deeper healing, and so she decided to share her work with others in hopes that they’d be healed too.