Reppin Magazine... Reppin THE 706

I've Been Changed: Part 1

I've Been Changed: Part 2

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)

We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000)

The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks

Abortions will not let you forget.
You remember the children you got that you did not get,
The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,
The singers and workers that never handled the air.
You will never neglect or beat
Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.
You will never wind up the sucking-thumb
Or scuttle off ghosts that come.
You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh,
Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.

I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed
children.
I have contracted. I have eased
My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck.
I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized
Your luck
And your lives from your unfinished reach,
If I stole your births and your names,
Your straight baby tears and your games,
Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches,
and your deaths,
If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths,
Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.
Though why should I whine,
Whine that the crime was other than mine?--
Since anyhow you are dead.
Or rather, or instead,
You were never made.
But that too, I am afraid,
Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said?
You were born, you had body, you died.
It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.

Believe me, I loved you all.
Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you

Etheridge Knight (1931 - 1991)

Feeling Fucked Up by Etheridge Knight

Lord she's gone done left me done packed / up and split
and I with no way to make her
come back and everywhere the world is bare
bright bone white crystal sand glistens
dope death dead dying and jiving drove
her away made her take her laughter and her smiles
and her softness and her midnight sighs--

Fuck Coltrane and music and clouds drifting in the sky
fuck the sea and trees and the sky and birds
and alligators and all the animals that roam the earth
fuck marx and mao fuck fidel and nkrumah and
democracy and communism fuck smack and pot
and red ripe tomatoes fuck joseph fuck mary fuck
god jesus and all the disciples fuck fanon nixon
and malcom fuck the revolution fuck freedom fuck
the whole muthafucking thing
all i want now is my woman

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CIRCULATE THIS TO ALL GROUPS YOU MAY BELONG
TO**

The Reppin Magazine: www.reppinmagazine.com is currently seeking submissions for its summer 2009 issue. The deadline for June submissions is Monday June 1, 2009 and the first Monday every month after that date until further notice. Below are the columns Reppin Magazine currently needs submissions for:

short fiction, essays, articles, and commentaries.

Reppin Magazine, we know that writers have their own individual literary
flows, and for that reason, we do not limit writers as to types of
work they can submit to us; however, we do not do PORN- or HATE-
related material.

Submissions should be no longer than 2,500 words.

NOTE: If you are submitting work for short stories, please
submit a brief description (no longer than 50 words) of your piece
that will tantalize readers. Also, we ask that all submissions be
accompanied by a bio from the submitter and a picture (if you would
like to submit one).

We do have the SPOTLIGHT POET column, and if you are interested
in being considered, you must submit to us three to four poems,
a bio, a picture, and answer a few questions for an interview
with us if you are selected. We are definitely interested in
helping spread the word for those poets who are published
(self or traditionally) .
The Poetry Corner

If you are a poet and you know it, get your hands on the keyboard,
show off that literary prowess, and submit your poetry to us.

GENERALLY, we receive a lot of poetry, and it may take a bit longer
to hear from us in regards to publication date. We will ALWAYS e-
mail submitters to let them know when we will publish their work or
why we are unable to publish a submission.

We do have the SPOTLIGHT POET column, and if you are interested
in being considered, you must submit to us three to four poems,
a bio, a picture, and answer a few questions for an interview
with us if you are selected. We are definitely interested in
helping spread the word for those poets who are published
(self or traditionally).

W.I.L.D. Sun Publishers

Email: themightypen@reppinmagazine.com