Pulse
By Shontay Luna
Racism pulses through America’s blood.
In quick, tense rivers that flow through
inner city alleys dipped with police batons.
America is an oblivious skank; not caring
about being a shining beacon of hypocrisy.
While not wanting anyone to say how she
really is. Scoffing at the plaque on the
Statue of Liberty; pleading to shelter the
masses. She can ask for them all, but
America knows which ones won’t be
accepted. She’s always been arrogant;
having grown up with the labor of the
masses. Her foundation built upon the
backs of the oppressed. Swaying to the
songs written about her beauty, glory,
fairness and valor. I’m not buying the
song and dance; instead, I make it my
mission to call her out on her shit.
Screaming from my rickety, second
hand pedestal - my words seep past
her custom made earplugs to penetrate
her wax filled crevices. But still, she never
hears what I’m saying.
Shontay Luna is a self-proclaimed goddess that lives in the Midwest with mix of pens, paper and Sons of Anarchy’s Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz fanfiction fantasies. A part-time public service worker by day, her poems have appeared in WestWard Quarterly, The Listening Eye, Text Power Telling, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Canyon Voices, Toasted Cheese, The Beatnik Cowboy and The Insurgence, among others. The author of four chapbooks of poetry, ‘The Goddess Journal’ is themed with puzzles and affirmations to elevate feminine self-esteem. Another is ‘To James & Sarah with Love’ - a Silent Generation slang memorial to her paternal grandparents.