[My love is as a fever longing still]

Caroline Randall Williams
Volume 45, Issue 2 — Fall 2015

My man? He the Promise King—
           I can’t open my mouth but he’ll swear such and such.
Try and stop him, see where that get me,
           Buyin’ me shit he can’t afford. 
My love, the Promise King—
           Why he make ’em, can’t keep ’em,
I couldn’t say. Figure he get
                      High on the way it
                      Bind us for a minute, till he
                      Lie, that’s all his word is—
My man Love, the promise king:
           I break it if I bought it,
           I own it if I caught it,
           I spend it if I got it. 

Caroline Randall Williams is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Mississippi. A 2010 Harvard graduate, she is also the coauthor of two books, The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess (a young adult novel) and Soul Food Love (a cookbook/memoir). Her first collection of poetry, Lucy Negro, Redux (Ampersand Books) was published in spring 2015. Photo credit: Tenola Bravura Plaxico

From the Issue
45/2
Fall 2015