Don’t ever mistake me again.
My smile is not an invitation
for baseless declarations.
It is the black silk slip
my mama made me wear,
under my dress for church,
so no one could see through to
m
My eyes follow the green glow of his kitchen walls as I lay on the floor, The smell of his compost And our dying bouquets leaking Into my nostrils Like cigarette smoke hiding Behind a set of teeth.
Habiba Warren: When did you first start writing? Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? Michele Randall: I wrote really awful poetry as a kid—I think because I was trying to process my world