Dear Angel, I am on a bus ride to heaven. The man in navy blue uniform had allowed me to ride for free. Brown Skin human like me. He understood things because we share a similar feel in our eyes. Oh my angel I can’t wait till I arrive, my knees would give out and lay next to your feet. Kisses to cover the days I missed.
(I looked out my window and rested my pen. I saw cracked streets, halfway houses, ghosts along the road. 3 people armies. A mother and her two kids. A broken fire hydrant with innocence running in and out the water. I smiled because of this Irreplaceable soul but this soul was created with so much sorrow, poverty and pain)
Oh my angel I wish for a better change. A life that isn’t like a broken down dream but like an American eagle, flying through the rivers and seas. A reputation that can paint my face a clean white. But I mean no disgrace to my black heritage. I just wish to be accepted.
(I looked out my window and rested my pen again. I saw pink and white skies, knives that grew from pale hands, Houses lined up perfectly. Romance with a partner for life. Would my angel want to be there for life? Isn’t this the perfect life?)
Oh my angel I dream to forever be with you my poems as a promise of eternity, I hope it is enough, I hope I can be enough for you
Angel, though I own nothing I ask if you could love my coal like skin and my worn out clothes, socks with holes in
Would you love my shattered mind and loud laughter?
(I looked around to see terror on the faces of the passengers, oceans of water spilling into the windows, the movement of the bus sinking down into the waters I once watched from above
My lungs being taken over
My notebook falling over
Pen floating from my hand into a void,
kids pulled from their seats
Men and woman attempting to save what’s left of life
But I sit still awaiting the end, what am I to return to anyways, my lover has been dead for 10 years. Maybe this is my chance to finally feel them again. To return to my lover from above
My angel
This death is silent but long, watching as people attempt to scream or cry or think or see or dream of their lung being able to breathe again
Watching as their souls leave their bodies
This death is like a mother rocking her baby into a soft dream
But only I could never wake again
Oh my angel
I can’t wait to be in your arms forever)
Author’s Note:
This piece was inspired by the song Oh my angel by Bertha Tillman, when I first heard the track it had put me in a deep state of thinking, similar to the setting of the poem I was also a bus. Throughout the piece I explore the main character’s perspective on life, himself and also through the letters he is writing to his lover. And as the journey of his bus ride continues we begin to learn the truth of the whole ride.
Nakki Asmah | 14 | Newark, NJ | @n.a.k_.talented on Instagram
