His kiss, fast-morphing fist—designed to confound and betray. Don’t tell me I liked it. When emotional oscillations came faster, phoenixed volcanic passion. Don’t tell me I liked it. His kiss fast morphing fist—bruises bloomed against promises. It was me, he said –Me, who held all the power. Me, he said, who made him do it, who made him rage—It was me, he said as he did his best to choke the life and laughter and light out of me. Don’t tell me I wanted it.
Maura Alia Badji is a poet/writer/artist/intuitive energy healer/ESL teacher. She is and identifies as, a disabled and multiracial woman, Her heritage includes Sicilian, African, Middle Eastern, Asian, Latinx, Scot-Irish, and Southeast Asian ancestry. Her poems and essays have appeared in Aeolian Harp, The Deaf Poets Society, The Delaware Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Cobalt, The Phoenix Soul, The Skinny Poetry Journal, WELTER, The Good Men Project, This City Is a Poem, Barely South Review, The Healing Woman, Liberated Muse, Night Ballet Press, and others. Maura lives in Virginia Beach with her teen son, Ibrahim.