Sherese Francis
Invisible X-MN(D): A GNarraDivergence
I.
Beyond the intellectual
Beyond the word theorized
But practiced
Embodied
Spirit possessed
Writhing into space
Stirred up and
Suspended
Against gravity
A spark of light floats
Up into the air
From the dust
From an opening
In compressed ground
Projection: the screaming god into existence
Speaking across space, a field holler potential
The outsider of the outsider?
A language indecipherable
Social body x-communicated
Homo seeker
Floating in space
In a loosely held
Fellowship
Such a strange sense
Taken for granted
Understanding assumed
In the cavern of
Blacktime
Blackspace
A djeli’s mountainous mouth
Speaking god into existence
II.
Do
Move
Let justice slide through the body well-being raise the
Hand uprising armor
Rebellion
Tears like a horse
And becomes ancestor in the ether Understand?
The
Universal? Communicate the legacy
Love
Eternally flesh breath the ancestral voice
The word
Listening being Invisible guide
Drinking in full life
Black in/door
Of return
Digger of the message
Time comes
Will release
Release them Entrance
Press against door and cross
Your skin Your eyes
They are going
Pray
Arrives through the door
Pray
Saints stir up
Eardrum
Moves psyche Restless
The Bemba ebony of eyes
Pen pricks the breeze Writing real
Portals
Joy enters
Moves
The catharsis moves all the good
And the power
And the strength
Calm
Dive into the room
Calm
Sherese Francis (she/they) describes themselves as an AlkyMist of the I-Magination, finding expression through poetry, interdisciplinary arts (collage, book and paper arts, sound and performance art, text art), workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Her(e) work takes inspiration from her(e) Afro-Caribbean heritage (Barbados and Dominica), and studies in Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Arts, mythology and etymology. Sherese has published work in various journals and four chapbooks, and edited a poetry anthology/guided journal, Baby Suggs and a Purple Butterfly. Sherese won Inverted Syntax’s 2024 Aggrey Book Prize for Poetry for PollyNation: A Seminary of Self, which will be published in 2027.
Sherese Francis (she/they) describes themselves as an AlkyMist of the I-Magination, finding expression through poetry, interdisciplinary arts (collage, book and paper arts, sound and performance art, text art), workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Her(e) work takes inspiration from her(e) Afro-Caribbean heritage (Barbados and Dominica), and studies in Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Arts, mythology and etymology. Sherese has published work in various journals and four chapbooks, and edited a poetry anthology/guided journal, Baby Suggs and a Purple Butterfly. Sherese won Inverted Syntax’s 2024 Aggrey Book Prize for Poetry for PollyNation: A Seminary of Self, which will be published in 2027.