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Written by Leslie Dianne. Posted in Poetry.
You used to write on
the sides of the trains
back in the day before
they invented a paint
that wiped out your
possibility before they
polished you out of
the city’s eyes some
people hated those
shapes those fat full
letters of your new
name the reinvention
of black and brown
men into their own
selves of course they
erased you because
anyone who got up to
those heights to paint
their signs is a daredevil
and a threat and it was
even whispered that you
must have been sending
a message to someone
beyond the stars and
that you were warriors
in some intergalactic war
who came down to free your
people who would know
you only by your
graffiti tags
Leslie Dianne
Leslie Dianne is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer whose work has been acclaimed internationally in places such as the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy and at La Mama in New York City. Her stage plays have been produced in NYC at The American Theater of Actors, The Raw Space, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and The Lamb's Theater. She holds a BA in French Literature from CUNY and her poems have appeared in The Lake, Ghost City Review, The Literary Yard, About Place Journal and Kairos and are forthcoming in Hawai’i Review. Her poetry was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
